UVU Victorian Literature (Fall 2018) Dashboard

Description

This group is a collaborative effort of the members of Utah Valley University's "Victorian Literature" class. It will include a timeline, map, and blog posts related to our course materials. For our timeline, we will place a selection of key political, social, and historical events in conversation with our course texts. Timeline events will be chosen for their relevance to the content and context of our readings. These events will be complemented by a brief blog post/annotation exploring the relationship between literary and cultural history. Our map will help us visualize the spatial relation between our timeline events and course texts. 

Galleries, Timelines, and Maps

Blog entry
Posted by Ashley Nadeau on Saturday, August 17, 2019 - 16:51

Commonplace books are notebooks or scrapbooks kept by readers and writers to help them reflect upon and remember useful or interesting ideas/concepts. Believed to have originated in the early modern period, commonplace books continued to be popular in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and could contain a variety of writing (and other media), such as: quotes, letters, poems, prayers, journal entries, recipes, images, or even advertisements.

Blog entry
Posted by Holly Kelly on Wednesday, December 12, 2018 - 15:19

In the fall of 1883, a pamphlet called, The Bitter Cry of the Outcast London: An Inquiry into the Conditions of the Abject Poor, was published describing the deplorable sanitary conditions of the poor. A few days later, The Pall Mall Gazette picked up the story and wrote an article called “Is it Not Time?” containing a one-page condensed version of the pamphlet. The conditions described included the following quote, “We do not say the conditions of their homes, for how can those places be called homes, compared with the lair of a wild beast would be a comfortable and healthy spot? (57-58)” In heartbreaking detail, the author describes case after case of horrific conditions of filth and degradation.

“In one cellar a sanitary inspector reports finding a father, mother, three children, and four pigs! In another room a missionary found a man ill with small pox, his wife just recovering from her eighth confinement, and the children running...

more
Blog entry
Posted by Michaela Jensen on Saturday, December 8, 2018 - 23:33

Only eight years after the second Anglo-Afghan war, Richard Kipling writes The Man Who Would be KIng, which is also located in Afghanistan. Kipling's story is not a retelling of the war, but rather what it represented. Early in the novella Carnehan remarkes that they have "deicided that India isn't big enough for such as us" (9). This attitude reflects the imperialistic attitudes of Victorian England. The British didn't need Afghanistan, but they wanted to keep Russian out and so they started a two year war over it. In their minds, and in Dan and Peachy's, the world belonged to them and nothing was "big enough" for them. The British came in with their 40,000 men and their rifles and the Afghans were run down. During the 1879 Battle of Kabul the "British and Indian casualities were 33 . . . [they] estimated that the Afghan casualties, almost all killed, were 3,000" ("Battle"). Similarly, in the book, Dan and Peachy also come with rifles to save an outnumbered tribe from...

more
Blog entry
Posted by McKaley Clark on Friday, December 7, 2018 - 13:59

 

Through these paintings, you see the shift in the acceptance/tolerance of the Victorians for the “fallen woman”. I think that these paintings also go along well with the readings that we have completed throughout the semester. In Oliver Twist, we have Nancy, the utmost fallen woman. When given the chance for redemption by Rose Maylie, Nancy believes that there is no way for redemption to be possible. Nancy ends up dead at the end of the novel, killed by none other than Bill Sikes. We then shift to Lady Audley’s Secret, a woman who has been married and has disregarded her child to find herself a new life, because she couldn’t handle the pressures of motherhood. Lucy is sent off to an insane asylum at the end of the novel, she doesn't successfully get away with her actions. Lastly, we have Tess of the D’Urbervilles. We see Tess as she struggles with her impregnation. Her family is more accepting and understanding than what was to be expected...

more
Blog entry
Posted by Michaela Jensen on Friday, December 7, 2018 - 13:41

It is interesting to note that most contemporaries associate theories of evolution with Darwin, when there were others who were talking about evolution and natural selection before him. This is especially important to point for a discussion of "In Memoriam" because Darwin's On the Origin of Species was actually published nine years after Tennyson's poem. Before Darwin's book the more prevalent texts on theories of evolution--both human and the world--were Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology and Robert Chambers Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation. Lyell's book questioned common Christian beliefs of a time of catastrophic change for the Earth, and insetad proposed that the " formation of Earth's crust took place through countless small changes occurring over vast periods of time, all according to known natural laws" ("Charles"). While many of Lyell's suggestions have now been deemed entirely wrong, we can examine the impact that this groundbreaking text would have had on...

more
Blog entry
Posted by Michaela Jensen on Friday, December 7, 2018 - 12:55

Christina Rosetti’s poem “Goblin Market” can be linked to the opium and laudanum addictions of the Victorian era. Laudanum, an opium derivative, was sold in common markets to all members of the public, often alongside products such as fruits and vegetables. Laudanum was endorsed by doctors as a miracle cure for nearly all ills. However, there was a growing awareness also in the medical profession of the addictive nature of the drug.

The fruits of the Goblins are like opium, with addictive qualities. The description of Laura by Rossetti is nearly identical to that of laudanum addicts. Laura, without the fruit, “grew thin and grey” and “dwindled” and “decay[ed].” In the British Medical Journal, a doctor describes his real-life young female addict as “cold and pallid [skin], [and] the pale and ghastly expression” (Russell 335). Interestingly, Rossetti’s sister-in-law, the wife of her brother Dante Rossetti, died of a laudanum overdose in 1862, the same year the poem was...

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Blog entry
Posted by Layton West on Wednesday, December 5, 2018 - 23:59

Motivation to change comes through many means. In regards to political and social change, it comes with not only resistance but polarized opposition. There is evidence of this throughout history. Today, people arguably have more social liberties than ever before. However, people continue to fight for more freedoms as they have for centuries. In Victorian England, power between the monarchy, the prime minister, parliament, and the people was still trying to find balance. Additionally, with education and communication more widespread than ever before, larger social groups were able to organize and discuss what political rights they wanted, including more voting power.

By the end of the Napoleonic wars, famine, poor economy and a lack of suffrage in England provoked thousands of citizens towards political radicalism. In response, the Manchester Patriotic Union, who frequently advocated for Parliamentary reform, organized a protest. On august 16th, 1819 at St Peter's Field in...

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Blog entry
Posted by Layton West on Wednesday, December 5, 2018 - 20:13

Post-colonialism refers to the effects on any given culture after their civilization has been colonized by a separate cultural group. Throughout history, England has been known to colonize many parts of the world in order to benefit from unique resources. In the Victorian era, England had few rivals and insignificant competition for maintaining strongholds in many parts of the world since Napoleon had been defeated. England held land and processed resources as if it were part of England in parts of Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Americas. Though England is proportionally a small country, the British people relied on the resources from their colonies for generations. In addition, they contributed these resources to the “cultural colonization” of their lands as well.

One of the primary colonies of England during the Victorian era was western and southern India. However, the year 1876 began with a failed monsoon and as a result, a famine that lasted three years. Due to their...

more
Blog entry
Posted by Layton West on Wednesday, December 5, 2018 - 19:28

In Vicotrian era Britain, people were coming to recognize the importance of science and psychology. Though England at the time was filled with deep thinkers, writers, and philosophers, only a few pioneers began to dedcate themselves to the study and observation of the sciences.George Henry Lewes was one such man who began as a philosopher who developed theorys regarding people's health, specifically, thier mental health. Throughout the early part of the Nineteenth-Century, Lewesbegan tests and studies using live animals to experiment nervous systems and refelxes. As he became busy with biological work, he kept refering back to his background in philosophy. 

In the 1840s, Lewes began to publish a series of books titled Problems of Life and Mind. In his books, he became one of the first scientists to make a connection that broke ground for future psychology. His theory was called Scientific Psychology: an idea which is founded on the combination...

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Blog entry
Posted by Ashlyn Churchill on Tuesday, December 4, 2018 - 15:41

In 1848, a group of artists who were inspired by the theories of John Ruskin banded together to create the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The name came about because the Royal Acadamy at the time was heavily interested in the work of Raphael. This meant that rather than a focus on balance and perfect artistry, the Pre-Raphaelites were interested in making art (and literature) with as heavy an emphasis on realism as they could. Originally, the principle members of the brotherhood included William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, and Dante Gabriel Rosetti. The original society in 1848 did contain one author, and as the movement gained traction by 1860, more painters and authors joined the movement including Christina Rosetti, author of "Goblin Market." 

The group was also opposed to the interest in 'genre painting,' and prefered to focus on more trancendental subjects. Much of their work is religious, but they were also inspired by literature and poetry. One of the most famous...

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Pages

Individual Entries

Blog entry
Posted by Ashley Nadeau on Saturday, August 17, 2019 - 16:51

Commonplace books are notebooks or scrapbooks kept by readers and writers to help them reflect upon and remember useful or interesting ideas/concepts. Believed to have originated in the early modern period, commonplace books continued to be popular in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and could contain a variety of writing (and other media), such as: quotes, letters, poems, prayers, journal entries, recipes, images, or even advertisements.

Chronology Entry
Posted by Jillian Innes on Friday, December 14, 2018 - 01:22
Blog entry
Posted by Holly Kelly on Wednesday, December 12, 2018 - 15:19

In the fall of 1883, a pamphlet called, The Bitter Cry of the Outcast London: An Inquiry into the Conditions of the Abject Poor, was published describing the deplorable sanitary conditions of the poor. A few days later, The Pall Mall Gazette picked up the story and wrote an article called “Is it Not Time?” containing a one-page condensed version of the pamphlet. The conditions described included the following quote, “We do not say the conditions of their homes, for how can those places be called homes, compared with the lair of a wild beast would be a comfortable and healthy spot? (57-58)” In heartbreaking detail, the author describes case after case of horrific conditions of filth and degradation.

“In one cellar a sanitary inspector reports finding a father, mother, three children, and four pigs! In another room a missionary found a man ill with small pox, his wife just recovering from her eighth confinement, and the children running...

more
Posted by Holly Kelly on Wednesday, December 12, 2018 - 14:42
Chronology Entry
Posted by Holly Kelly on Wednesday, December 12, 2018 - 14:26
Blog entry
Posted by Michaela Jensen on Saturday, December 8, 2018 - 23:33

Only eight years after the second Anglo-Afghan war, Richard Kipling writes The Man Who Would be KIng, which is also located in Afghanistan. Kipling's story is not a retelling of the war, but rather what it represented. Early in the novella Carnehan remarkes that they have "deicided that India isn't big enough for such as us" (9). This attitude reflects the imperialistic attitudes of Victorian England. The British didn't need Afghanistan, but they wanted to keep Russian out and so they started a two year war over it. In their minds, and in Dan and Peachy's, the world belonged to them and nothing was "big enough" for them. The British came in with their 40,000 men and their rifles and the Afghans were run down. During the 1879 Battle of Kabul the "British and Indian casualities were 33 . . . [they] estimated that the Afghan casualties, almost all killed, were 3,000" ("Battle"). Similarly, in the book, Dan and Peachy also come with rifles to save an outnumbered tribe from...

more
Chronology Entry
Posted by Michaela Jensen on Saturday, December 8, 2018 - 23:05
Blog entry
Posted by McKaley Clark on Friday, December 7, 2018 - 13:59

 

Through these paintings, you see the shift in the acceptance/tolerance of the Victorians for the “fallen woman”. I think that these paintings also go along well with the readings that we have completed throughout the semester. In Oliver Twist, we have Nancy, the utmost fallen woman. When given the chance for redemption by Rose Maylie, Nancy believes that there is no way for redemption to be possible. Nancy ends up dead at the end of the novel, killed by none other than Bill Sikes. We then shift to Lady Audley’s Secret, a woman who has been married and has disregarded her child to find herself a new life, because she couldn’t handle the pressures of motherhood. Lucy is sent off to an insane asylum at the end of the novel, she doesn't successfully get away with her actions. Lastly, we have Tess of the D’Urbervilles. We see Tess as she struggles with her impregnation. Her family is more accepting and understanding than what was to be expected...

more
Chronology Entry
Posted by McKaley Clark on Friday, December 7, 2018 - 13:57
Blog entry
Posted by Michaela Jensen on Friday, December 7, 2018 - 13:41

It is interesting to note that most contemporaries associate theories of evolution with Darwin, when there were others who were talking about evolution and natural selection before him. This is especially important to point for a discussion of "In Memoriam" because Darwin's On the Origin of Species was actually published nine years after Tennyson's poem. Before Darwin's book the more prevalent texts on theories of evolution--both human and the world--were Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology and Robert Chambers Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation. Lyell's book questioned common Christian beliefs of a time of catastrophic change for the Earth, and insetad proposed that the " formation of Earth's crust took place through countless small changes occurring over vast periods of time, all according to known natural laws" ("Charles"). While many of Lyell's suggestions have now been deemed entirely wrong, we can examine the impact that this groundbreaking text would have had on...

more

Pages