The introduction of Pamela Colman Smith’s work for The Annancy Stories was a welcome change to the more classical stories of Victorian England we had been studying thus far for this course. I was familiar beforehand with the character of Anansi and his various folktales and mythologies, but I was surprised to discover that these stories were being published during this characteristically racially discriminatory and prejudiced time period for a predominantly white audience. I found most interesting the way in which Smith approaches her work in a manner that is accessible to white audiences, but also slyly subverts various notions about this ruling class. I thoroughly enjoyed Emma’s presentation and the points she brought up about the overall oral nature of these stories and how this was traditional to Carribean communities, and how this is more or less adapted to Western standards by Smith creating one static version of the story through...
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Description
Students in Lorraine Janzen Kooistra's English Capstone Seminar at Ryerson University in Toronto in F2020 aim to make a virtue of pandemic necessity by engaging collaboratively and critically with the digital surrogates of a wide variety of Victorian illustrated books published between 1843 and 1899.
Using the interpretive model of image/text/context for both synchronic and diachronic analyses, and drawing on a range of digital tools, this course aims to understand the past through the present and the present through the past.
Our study begins with Charles Dickens's iconic Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas, illustrated by John Leech (1843), then turns to two examples of poetry and illustration: Alfred Tennyson's "The Lady of Shalott," illustrated by Pre-Raphaelite artists William Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1857); and Christina Rossetti's "Goblin Market," illustrated by her brother, Dante Gabriel (1862). These mid-century works will provide the foundation for our study of the illustrated books that proliferated at the end of the century. We'll analyze a variety of fin-de-siècle genres and styles, starting with Arthur Conan Doyle's popular detective stories, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, illustrated by Sydney Paget (1892). Next up is Salome: A Tragedy in One Act, Oscar Wilde's censored play based on a biblical story, which was infamously "embroidered" by decadent artist Aubrey Beardsley (1894). Fairy tales and fantasies aimed at adult audiences allowed counter-cultural writers and artists to protest existing norms and imagine other worlds; our examples are Laurence Housman's self-illustrated collection, The House of Joy (1895) and Clemence Housman's gothic novella The Were-Wolf, with wood-engraved illustrations by the author after her brother Laurence's designs (1896). The Annancy Stories, a self-illustrated collection of folktales by Pamela Colman Smith, is the first-known publication featuring this Jamaican trickster figure (1899). Students examine the final work, A Christmas Carol: The Graphic Novel (2019), for evidence of the legacy of Victorian illustrated books today.
The following texts are available in COVE (see D2L for the other digital surrogates):
Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas (1843): A COVE Studio Text for class annotation
Clemence Housman, The Were-Wolf (1896): A COVE Annotated Edition
Christina G. Rossetti, Goblin Market (1862): A COVE Annotated Edition
Alfred Tennyson: The Lady of Shalott (1857): A COVE Studio text for class annotation
Victorian illustrated books resulted from the collaboration of a number of social agents, including authors, artists, engravers, editors, publishers, and readers. Using the COVE toolset, students and instructor work collaboratively to build resources that critically curate Victorian illustrated books in cultural contexts ranging from the nineteenth century to the present.
We will use the COVE annotation tool to hone our close reading and editorial skills. In COVE Studio, each student will provide TWO TEXTUAL ANNOTATIONS, one on "content," one on "craft," for Dickens's A Christmas Carol and Tennyson's "The Lady of Shalott."
We will use the Gallery Image tool to provide bibliographic and contextual information and iconographic commentary and analysis on illustrations, and to associate these with events in the Timeline and places in the Map.
We will use the Gallery Exhibition tool to critically curate illustrated books in cultural contexts, situating works synchronically, within their originating moment of production and reception, and diachronically, in terms of their ongoing moments of production and reception.
We will use the COVE Timeline tool to provide information about historical events relevant to Victorian illustrated books, both at the time of their first publication, and in their ongoing re-production over time and across media.
We will use the COVE Map tool to associate places relevant to illustrated books and their makers and the cultural contexts that we showcase in the Gallery and on the Timeline.
Galleries, Timelines, and Maps
I was rather struck by the illustrations for The Annancy Stories in that Smith's style of artwork feels much more fluid than anything we have come across thus far. It gives the impression of inky brushstrokes rather than of rigidly controlled lines.
This text stood out for its portrayal of race in colonized Jamaica. When race is a central feature in illustrations it often gives the sense of a one-sided lens in which one group is exoticized and interpreted through their alterity. The gaze of the artist as well as that of the intended audience is crucial to the cultivation of the image's content. The gaze of the audience is an essential feature in any text. Smith's audience was predominantly white and seeking entertainment rather than education as demonstrated through her performances of West Indian folk stories for hire at parties and events. From their perspective, examples of West Indian culture may have been exoticized and transformed into a status symbol...
morePrior to this course, I had only briefly encountered the Annancy Stories so it was a joy to be able to engage with them by focusing entirely on the visual aspect. It was nice to finally engage with a text by a black nineteenth-century author. I was surprised at the differences in the visuals compared to other texts we've engaged within this course. The lines seemed cleaner and more distinct. I noticed that any colouring was solid, no shading was used which emphasize those distinct lines. Closer to the end of Emma's presentation, she pointed out the villiage in the background and the black smudges surrounding the houses; I'd assume they're meant to represent trees or any foliage that you'd find Jamaica. I was, however, interested in all the tiny little lines spread out in front of the village. I can only assume those were meant to represent sugar cane and that the surrounding village was part of a plantation, a subtle nod to the slavery and injustice imposed on Jamaicans for...
moreI really enjoyed reading about the Annancy stories in general prior to the class so the fact that we've gotten to read it in this class was a pleasant surprise - Emma did a great job on her presentation too, it was really informative and a great question. I've always been intrigued with the trickster tales and how closely it's interwoven in West-Indies and African culture. With Emma's question if what it means - oral stories are common and helpful ways in showing the fluidity with almost "free-form" within Caribbean / African community, it's not with the intention to define static rules but rather to allow others to join in the meaning-making within these stories. They're storytellers that allow the audience and the teller to be on equal terms - there is no hierarchy, not really. With the way the woman is dressed (including her cloak), it relates to the preconception of Obeah that's closely ingrained in Jamaican culture but within colonialism, it was outlawed (I believe) and it was...
moreThis week we discussed Pamela Colman Smith’s Annancy Stories which I had slight knowledge on based on our presentations in the early weeks of this class. However, after today's presentation and discussion on the text, I gained a much more clear perspective on the text as a whole including its illustrations. Specifically, I enjoyed Professor Kooistra's comments on the folklore tropes which are apparent in the text such as Toad's transformation illustrated through his change of clothing. Furthermore, I was not aware of Pamela Colman Smith’s ambiguous racial identity which sparked some really informative discussions based on her work being considered as a cultural appropriation of Jamaican and African culture. Although I think it is important to have knowledge based on the author's background, I believe Smith's work does more good than bad. We can look at our own selection of readings for this course, and realize that her work brings a new...
moreI think Undisciplining Victorian Studies is an important but difficult task. The push to decolonize Academia has been ongoing for much longer than this year’s BLM movement. My experience in Ryerson English has been tinged by an attempt at decolonization. Many of my profs have made a strong effort to incorporate postcolonial, Indigenous, and subaltern writers and artists into their syllabi. I have read much less of the American and British classics than I’m sure I would have read at UofT. But there is always more work to be done. Figures like Pamela Colman Smith provide an important starting point for diversifying the Victorian canon and elevating the long-suppressed stories of the Other in the empire. That she was as prolific as she was and is still remains so obscure is saddening, but the work being done to uncover her history and influence is important. Whether or not PCS was a mixed race woman or not is only marginally important—a blood quantum cannot change the...
moreThis week's seminar focused on Pamela Colman Smith's Annancy Stories, a series of African/Jamaican folktales published in 1899. Pamela Colman Smith was an author, illustrator, and publisher born to an American father and Jamaican mother. The Annancy stories is a transatlantic text unlike the other texts from previous weeks focuses on stories that originate outside of Britain. The Annancy stories originated in West Africa and were brought to Jamaica by enslaved Africans through the British slave trade. Colman Smith as the author, illustrator, and published gives her a sense of authority that is different from the other female authors we've studied this term. Her decision to recreate the stories in the original Jamaican patois is interesting as it allows the stories to retain an aspect of the original oral tradition that would be otherwise lost in translation through publishing with any other company. It is a complex attempt at cultural preservation but also cultural...
moreI found this week's class very interesting on The Annancy Stories and Pamela Colman Smith as a probable mixed-race, female illustrator and storyteller. Now more than ever, it is important to decolonize Victorian studies that are conventionally white-eurocentric based and study texts that were also created during the Victoria 'era' albeit, outside of England. I enjoyed Professor Kooistra's mini-presentation on Pamela Colman Smith and her contribution to the Celtic Revival in Ireland and her work in illustrating folk tales. I had the fortunate experience of studying abroad in Ireland last semester at the University College Cork and took multiple classes on the Celtic Revival where they heavily focused on Yeates and Lady Gregory. Not once, did any of my Irish classes mention Pamela Colman as a figure who contributed to the Celtic Revival. I find this rather interesting as there were lots of people (not necessarily white Europeans) who contributed to this rich literature movement. I...
moreThrough our discussion of the Annancy Stories by Pamela Colman Smith, I found the text to be a perfect example of how an image, although potentially a direct reflection of its text, can add so much significant meaning that the words lone never would have brought out. The story that we discussed posed its wn significance to Colonial texts and the history of Colonial Jamaica, through its relationships between characters (which was how I primarily noticed the dynamic being discussed), but the critiques of colonialism that the text aims to make seem to be brought to life when analyzing the image that we discussed, "I know what you is. You playin' trick pon' me." In the image itself, we see the dynamic between the Victorian white man that seems to be standing above the Jamaican woman, who is dressed as a white woman. The positioning of the characters in this image appears to be Pamela Colman Smith's way of asserting the dominance of Victorian men over the people of Jamaica that were...
moreIn this post, I’d like to respond to a question Dr. Janzen posed about the Gothic tropes of of Housman’s The Were-Wolf. Namely, the tropes brought into question were the gothic double, the hunter-hunted, and the setting. These tropes have fairly conventional forms in the Gothic genre. The double is usually a twin or a narrative foil. It’s also fairly common that a character be a double of some long-passed ancestor. The relationship of the hunter and the hunted usually manifests as the male Gothic villain (hunter) chasing the Gothic heroine, which in turn is closely related to our third trope, setting, as the chase occurs in labyrinthine and claustrophobic settings.
In Housman’s The Were-Wolf, these conventions are subverted. Firstly, while Christian and Sweyn are twins, they do not seem to narratively serve as each others double. Rather, Christian and White Fell are paired together and the entire action...
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Individual Entries
This week we discussed Pamela Colman Smith’s Annancy Stories which I had slight knowledge on based on our presentations in the early weeks of this class. However, after today's presentation and discussion on the text, I gained a much more clear perspective on the text as a whole including its illustrations. Specifically, I enjoyed Professor Kooistra's comments on the folklore tropes which are apparent in the text such as Toad's transformation illustrated through his change of clothing. Furthermore, I was not aware of Pamela Colman Smith’s ambiguous racial identity which sparked some really informative discussions based on her work being considered as a cultural appropriation of Jamaican and African culture. Although I think it is important to have knowledge based on the author's background, I believe Smith's work does more good than bad. We can look at our own selection of readings for this course, and realize that her work brings a new...
moreI think Undisciplining Victorian Studies is an important but difficult task. The push to decolonize Academia has been ongoing for much longer than this year’s BLM movement. My experience in Ryerson English has been tinged by an attempt at decolonization. Many of my profs have made a strong effort to incorporate postcolonial, Indigenous, and subaltern writers and artists into their syllabi. I have read much less of the American and British classics than I’m sure I would have read at UofT. But there is always more work to be done. Figures like Pamela Colman Smith provide an important starting point for diversifying the Victorian canon and elevating the long-suppressed stories of the Other in the empire. That she was as prolific as she was and is still remains so obscure is saddening, but the work being done to uncover her history and influence is important. Whether or not PCS was a mixed race woman or not is only marginally important—a blood quantum cannot change the...
moreThis week's seminar focused on Pamela Colman Smith's Annancy Stories, a series of African/Jamaican folktales published in 1899. Pamela Colman Smith was an author, illustrator, and publisher born to an American father and Jamaican mother. The Annancy stories is a transatlantic text unlike the other texts from previous weeks focuses on stories that originate outside of Britain. The Annancy stories originated in West Africa and were brought to Jamaica by enslaved Africans through the British slave trade. Colman Smith as the author, illustrator, and published gives her a sense of authority that is different from the other female authors we've studied this term. Her decision to recreate the stories in the original Jamaican patois is interesting as it allows the stories to retain an aspect of the original oral tradition that would be otherwise lost in translation through publishing with any other company. It is a complex attempt at cultural preservation but also cultural...
moreI found this week's class very interesting on The Annancy Stories and Pamela Colman Smith as a probable mixed-race, female illustrator and storyteller. Now more than ever, it is important to decolonize Victorian studies that are conventionally white-eurocentric based and study texts that were also created during the Victoria 'era' albeit, outside of England. I enjoyed Professor Kooistra's mini-presentation on Pamela Colman Smith and her contribution to the Celtic Revival in Ireland and her work in illustrating folk tales. I had the fortunate experience of studying abroad in Ireland last semester at the University College Cork and took multiple classes on the Celtic Revival where they heavily focused on Yeates and Lady Gregory. Not once, did any of my Irish classes mention Pamela Colman as a figure who contributed to the Celtic Revival. I find this rather interesting as there were lots of people (not necessarily white Europeans) who contributed to this rich literature movement. I...
moreThrough our discussion of the Annancy Stories by Pamela Colman Smith, I found the text to be a perfect example of how an image, although potentially a direct reflection of its text, can add so much significant meaning that the words lone never would have brought out. The story that we discussed posed its wn significance to Colonial texts and the history of Colonial Jamaica, through its relationships between characters (which was how I primarily noticed the dynamic being discussed), but the critiques of colonialism that the text aims to make seem to be brought to life when analyzing the image that we discussed, "I know what you is. You playin' trick pon' me." In the image itself, we see the dynamic between the Victorian white man that seems to be standing above the Jamaican woman, who is dressed as a white woman. The positioning of the characters in this image appears to be Pamela Colman Smith's way of asserting the dominance of Victorian men over the people of Jamaica that were...
moreIn this post, I’d like to respond to a question Dr. Janzen posed about the Gothic tropes of of Housman’s The Were-Wolf. Namely, the tropes brought into question were the gothic double, the hunter-hunted, and the setting. These tropes have fairly conventional forms in the Gothic genre. The double is usually a twin or a narrative foil. It’s also fairly common that a character be a double of some long-passed ancestor. The relationship of the hunter and the hunted usually manifests as the male Gothic villain (hunter) chasing the Gothic heroine, which in turn is closely related to our third trope, setting, as the chase occurs in labyrinthine and claustrophobic settings.
In Housman’s The Were-Wolf, these conventions are subverted. Firstly, while Christian and Sweyn are twins, they do not seem to narratively serve as each others double. Rather, Christian and White Fell are paired together and the entire action...
moreThis weeks seminar discussions focused on Clemence Housman’s, an author and illustrator, The Were-Wolf and her wood-cut engraved illustrations. Houseman was a massive supporter of the woman's rights/sufferage movement which resulted in her defying gender norms within her lifestyle choices and literary work. Within the work we focused on, she defies gender norms by depicting a female werewolf within her work during a time where werewolves were assumed to be a symbol representing man. This is why I found the discussions today quite interesting as I enjoy seeing creators include things in their work that are deemed unconventional and controversial, but also pushes a social message. Werewolves were always seen as hypermasculine, and dominating, which are not traits women at this time were meant to embody, and the discussions today allowed me to understand how her feminist politics really reflected within her work and the illustrations. The illustration that intigued me...
moreI found the discussion today interesting as it really delved into the gothic tropes of transformation and how it has numerous meanings that allows leeway into discussing bigger topics. With Mila's illustration and her discussion, it's neat that White Fell is caught midway between her transformation of becoming a werwolf. I thought it really significant as it hints at the idea that women can be feral - more specifically, that they are capable of being wild and capable of base instinct. It's not the way that White Fell had become some dainty damsel but that because she was the werewolf being hunted, I seen it as something that people feared because she was different. That wildness is often associated to men or something generally not associated to women. Instead of blatantly making it grotesque in her transformation, there's a mixture of being sensual / coy (the upper body) and showing strength and hidden capabilities (the way the wolf's legs are much stronger than the one...
moreThis week, we discussed Clemence Housman’s The Were-Wolf and its illustrations that were designed by her brother Laurence Housman and wood engraved by her. One thing that really stood out to me about this course and all of my classmates’ presentations was how political the Housman’s art often was. The choice by Clemence to make the Were-Wolf a female and portray has as an incredibly fierce and strong figure might not seem very radical to us now, but at a time when women had very little agency and rights, it was. I really enjoyed learning about Clemence and Laurence’s feminism and political rebellion, and that definitely enhanced my understanding of the novella.
I was particularly drawn to the illustration “The Race” because it was really intriguing to look at the Were-Wolf in the midst of transformation and see her as this androgynous figure as Mila had mentioned in her presentation. Something I noticed about the picture was...
moreThis week's seminar focused on Clemence Houseman's The Werewolf, an author and illustrator, who was also the sister of Laurence Houseman. Clemence Houseman was an avid supporter of the women's suffrage movement and was known for flouting gender norms; this is further seen in her work, The Werewolf, which depicts a female werewolf. I think this very interesting since the depictions of female werewolves are rare as werewolves symbolize hypermasculinity, monstrosity, and giving in to one's baser needs. Houseman's depictions of werewolves subvert this narrative of hypermasculinity as White Fell is a woman, and instead, likely hints to female sexuality and female domination. The most fascinating aspect of including these concepts is the connection to the inclusion of pomegranates in the frontispiece, as well as the choice to title the fifth of the six illustrations, 'The Finish'. Pomegranates can be associated with blood, death, and fertility, which might associate...
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