This week's lesson focused once more on image-and-text interplay; however, there was an emphasis on annotation for the purpose of illuminating various aspects of the text to the reader. What I found most interesting about this class was the process of annotating itself. Annotating requires not only an understanding of a certain word or literary convention - it requires the writer to understand these elements within the context of the text that they are annotating. With this understanding in mind, I found the process of annotating to be much like writing a mini-essay as I selected parts of my assigned Stave. What I also found significant about annotating is the ability for word definitions to be interpreted within the context differently; for example, I defined the word "jocund" in the Stave Two, as did one of my group members. While our definitions were essentially the same, our interpretations of what the word meant contextually differed. Individual perspective seems to play an...
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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.
Individual Entries
I found it very fulfilling to be able to look at A Christmas Carol, written by Charles Dickens and Illustrated by John Leech today in class with my fellow peers. I have read/seen all different types of versions of A Christmas Carol as a result of just simply growing up. To call it a classic is an understatement, but to be able to study it in a university class this semester is a full circle moment. The images curated by John Leech have extreme depth and they have the capacity to be analyzed to great lengths. With that being said, I particularly enjoyed looking at the image titled “Marley’s Ghost”. The energy that the photo possesses is an eerie one, having life faced with death and a harsh reality of what is to come if you become too greedy in your present life. The image is cold, with little light and darkness weighing over Ebenezer Scrooge and Jacob Marley. The candlelight in the middle can be interpreted as the little glimpse of hope that scrooge has in regard...
moreI found that collectively annotating A Christmas Carol was an interesting experience because it really brought numerous minds together and enriched the concepts and the novella even more so. I personally liked how annotating and researching about the image further reveals things that I haven’t really noticed or paid attention to prior—the significant details put into things. It’s to actively engage with the reading and understanding its references. Annotating also helps in understanding words that we might’ve encountered in modern time but how their meaning had been different when the context is placed within the 19th century.
One thing I found kind of at odds was Charles Dickens’ purpose of writing the novella. I understand he wrote it after realizing how horrible the conditions of the working class were—with the Poor Law and exploitative measures of the elite class. At the same time, the...
moreIn creating annotation for Dicken’s A Christmas Carol, I was most interested in the craft annotation. It is simple enough to look up a word or phrase we do not understand and give it context; the annotations for literary aspects are more subjective for creativity and interpretation. For example, my content annotation was on “coach-and-six,” an expression unfamiliar to me. With a quick Google search, I was able to determine that this phrase references a carriage pulled by six horses. A very literal explanation, one that is not open to interpretation. Whereas for my craft annotation, I chose a piece of imagery, “ruddy smears upon the palpable brown air.” While it is quite clear what image the author is creating, the exact details are will differ amongst readers, allowing each individual imagination to create a unique picture. I think this novella is extremely relevant to the...
moreI really enjoyed today's exercise of annotating and analyzing the images and text within Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol. Starting off the lecture with some context about how Christmas was celebrated in the 1840's allowed me to understand the text better. While reading through and annotating the chapter assigned to my group, it was interesting to find certain lines that would not make sense in today's context or words that we maybe no longer use. This allowed me to further compare this 1843 text to more modern renditions I am familiar with which was interesting especially with the illustrations included within the original novella. Another thing I enjoyed was the analysis of the illustrations by John Leech, not only did we learn about how the image relates to the text and brings it to life but also the context of what these images meant in the context of the 1840's.
The dead as a doornail passage called to mind the satirical works of Johnathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" and Douglas Adams' The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Swift's essay (published in 1729) addresses the topic of famine and the lower class being codified as a burden on society. The greed and self-righteousness of the upper class which Swift counters in his essay are still prevalent at the writing of A Christmas Carol. The question arises of whether this exploitation can be changed on a grand scale. The structure of capitalism enforces exploitation and it seems inconceivable to alter the system of society as a whole. Even though Scrooge is no longer a miser at the end of the tale, the system which grants him power and torments the lower class remains in full strength. All the story stands to do is to encourage those in power to do some acts of charity. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy addresses similar themes such as the failure of...
moreThis week's class presented many interesting challenges as we began our first annotation assignment for Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol. I found the process of annotation to be incredibly interesting and engaging. Through these annotations I was presented with a great opportunity to research and analyze the text in more detail than I otherwise would be. I was able to learn about the historical context of many of the themes presented throughout the text. Victorian colloquialisms and societal conflict surrounding class and industry were all things that I was able to expand my knowledge of through these annotations. John Leech’s illustrations were particularly striking. I was unaware going in just how much effort was put into the complex process of creating and reproducing these images. Furthermore the incredible detail in each image, each so full of thematic...
moreThis week we focused more on the image and text relationship in The Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. What I found interesting was reading my classmate’s annotation on the text and how they interpreted it from their point of view. I was especially intrigued by the historical contexts that one must be aware of (the Victorian period in this case) in order to fully understand and appreciate this story. For example, prior to this week’s class, I had no idea what the “Poor Laws” were, and therefore, did not get the reference when it was used by the character Scrooge. However, now that I know what it refers to, I understand how Scrooge’s comment on such laws as if they were truly helping the poor further illustrate his ignorance on poverty which was symbolized at the end of stave 2 where one of the children that come clawing out of the ghost of Christmas past is called “ignorance”.
Something else I found interesting was John Leech’s way of asserting his dominance over...
moreI really enjoyed the annotated exercise because it was interesting to do a close reading of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. I feel as though when I am required to read a text for class, I try to get through it as quickly as possible. Therefore, it was helpful to be able to do a close reading and dive into different words and phrases that were more complicated to grasp. I decided to write on the word “bore” for stave four. I decided to do this word because I realized that while encountering the sentence I didn’t know what the word meant, and I skipped over it and continued. This is something I believe most people do when encountering new words, therefore I again see the value in doing the annotations. I also enjoyed looking at the illustrated works and hearing the input of my peers. I think the illustrations are important because they demonstrate a time in which artists were trying to link images to words in a meaningful way. Leech did a good job at this as his images...
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