Victorian Illustrated Books (ENG910 F2020) Dashboard
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
For this week’s class we were tasked with analyzing an illustration for a particular Victorian text and looking for research related to the image. Rather than looking at the text itself, our primary focus was strictly on the image. It has been a long time since I have last looked at Goblin Market so I needed to find some information related to the poem to be able to understand the illustration we used. It is important to realize the connection that image, text and context have together because they each influence one another. Often I only think about the text and the context surrounding a story and look at how they work in unison together. I do not usually consider how illustrations are also valuable to the publication of a text and how they impact the perception of the primary text it is connected to. It was interesting to learn that Rossetti’s brother was the one who made the illustration for the poem and how Rossetti delayed the release of the poem until the...
moreWhile exploring the history of the illustrations in Christina Rossetti’s The Goblin Market, I was delighted to learn of her collaborative efforts with her brother Dante Gabriel. I am a huge fan of family collaborations whether their parent/child, sibling, or spousal, I think it’s beautiful to have such like-mindedness and shared passion with family members. What I especially appreciate of The Goblin Market was that Christina Rossetti was so obviously excited and appreciative of her brother’s illustrations that she delayed its publication so she could collaborate with him. The collaboration is particularly interesting because the title-page design reflects the love and care experienced in family life. Two sisters embracing each other appear to be sleeping, with their arms are wrapped tightly around each other and one sister cushion’s her head on the other’s chest shows the bond between siblings that is hard to achieve elsewhere. This image created feelings...
moreToday’s class introduced the first samples of research in this course, applying the pressure of the final Capstone project.
The focus of the group assignment was a short post on the “Victorian Illustrated Books Timeline”. I found it very hard to differentiate what and what not to include amongst the overwhelming amount of information. Speaking on the collaborative component of the breakout rooms, my group focused specifically on Christina Rossetti’s The Goblin Market. This poem seemed to me a recurring discussion in the realm of Victorian literature, and it was through our research today that I finally understood why. In a different course, I had to look at The Goblin Market through a...
moreI was surprised when exploring through the Victorian Illustrated books in class to find the variety of genres that they can expand to. Specifically, for the book I focused on, The House of Joy, I was intrigued to find out that it focused on adult fairytales, which is something that I would assume to be most likely intended for a younger audience, if produced today. It was interesting to see that each story began with an illustrated image, which improved my reading experience by placing a picture to help support my vision of the characters and setting. The stories all consist of strong, and somewhat mystical, vocabulary, including words such as “prince” and “fair sir”, sounding almost medieval and royal. Each story was also supported with a dedication to a woman or daughter, which suggests that there were different levels of power among genders back when this was published. Since this was released during a time period when men were considered superior to...
moreToday I was given the opportunity to look at the Annancy Stories by Pamela Colman Smith. I was more than surprised when looking through this book. A lot of the illustrations caught my attention immediately and some so much that I just stared at the photo for an arguably long time. It was obvious that the person that wrote the stories was just as much invested as the person illustrating the images… and in this case it was the same person. Pamela Colman Smith both wrote and illustrated the Annancy Stories and the beautiful stories accompanied by illustrations created of equal passion. This piece of work is Jamaican Folklore, with already a unique genre, Pamela Colman Smith aids in the uniqueness of her work caricature-like illustrations which are not commonly seen in the Victorian Era. Specifically, to note about the caricature-like illustrations; Pamela Colman Smith derives the Anansi Jamaican Trickster Folklore Figure and implements it in her collection of stories...
moreIn today's class while in our smaller groups I got the opportunity to look into the illistrative novel "The Were-Wolf" by Clemence Housman published in 1896. I was suprised when we were doing our research by the feminist tones presented and even that the novel was written by a woman. When previously looking into victorian texts in my previous years I have noticed an overwhelming oppression of women through the roles that women placed. While looking further into the text I was shocked to learn that while Clemence Housmans brother did the illustrations, she herself did the wood engravings throughout the text and wrote the story . I was reminded of the required reading for class "Two texts, two lands, two looks" In which Lorraine Janzen Kooistra discusses the Bitexuality theory. From that texts I learned that traditionally words are looked at as masculine and illustrations feminine. I thought about this when looking into "The Were-Wolf" in which the words are actually...
moreThis week in class, my group and I were tasked with creating a timeline entry for Clemence Housman’s The Were-Wolf, a gothic text situated around a monstrous female that terrorizes a remote village. I had never heard of the book before, so I was unaware of the surprisingly progressive feminist narrative, but I was even more astounded by the fact that not only had Clemence written it but she also had a significant role in illustrating the novel. However, this wasn’t always the case, as it was originally published in the Atalanta literary magazine with illustrations by Everard Hopkins. I found his artwork to be more or less along the lines of what I expected Victorian illustrations of the time were, but it was Clemence’s engravings that stood out to me for their failure to conform to the gender conventions I had seen in many other Victorian texts. Her...
moreThe concept of bitextuality—specifically the relationship between text and illustration being similar to masculinity, femininity and the reception by the audience—is intriguing to think about. In the explanation of the text being the male, domineering role; capable of standing on its own compared to the illustrations being feminine (incapable of independence and needing the text) is what stuck out to me. Going further on that notion, it could go two ways. That might be why people often neglect / disregard illustrations within books, it echoes how women are disregarded in the patriarchal system and therefore seen as not providing much to the “intellectual’s table”.
However, what it also implies is illustration’s older translation of being able to illuminate and shed light on various things discussed. Wherein the text provides the reader the means to take in what’s being written, the “femininity” of...
moreOne of the concepts that we discussed in today's class was the relationship between text and image to create/produce meaning. More specifically, bitextual theory, or the way in which the "text and image engage in terms of shared subject and cultural context... and furthermore, the way in which the reader engages with the image and text to create meaning..." (Kooistra). Personally, when I read, I tend to focus on the text rather than the images because I assume that's where the 'story' or meaning is. However, if a picture is especially striking, such as unique art styles or colours, it will intrigue me to create a story between the text and image that transcends just the text by trying to find nuances or allusions within the image. The most striking thing about the relationship between text and image is that these concepts are gendered. Text is masculine, whereas image is feminine. This gendered concept speaks to the idea that patriarchy invades even books. The...
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