I really enjoyed listening to today's presentations on The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and examining the correlation between text and image. It is very obvious to me that every single image that was discussed in class today represents fin-de-siècle ideologies of the late nineteenth century such as issues surrounding imperialism, race, gender, and classism. The illustrator of the text, Sydney Paget, did a great job in thoughtfully choosing the best scenes to illustrate in a way that deepens our understanding of the text while at the same time, creating meaning that is separate from the text. My favourite illustration of the presentations was "At the foot of the stairs she met this Lascar scoundrel" in The Man With The Twisted Lip. I enjoyed this illustration of the East-Asian man blocking the woman's entrance to the opium den because I feel it demonstrates a key ideology of the late 19th century, and that was the fear of the '"other," resulting from Britain...
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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
Something I found interesting while studying Sidney Paget's illustrations for Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories is how relatively un-interperative these illustrations are in comparison with the other illustrations we have looked at so far. Paget seems to pretty faithfully and uncontroversially reproduce the scenes Doyle lays out, with few real novel contributions regarding each scene's narrative. One obvious explanation for this is that Paget, unlike most of the other illustrators whose work we've studied so far, did not collaborate with or have to seek the approval of Doyle before publication. Perhaps this made Paget less willing to step too far out of the box in terms of how he represented the latter's stories, for fear of displeasing him. Obviously Paget did leave his own distinct mark on how Holmes' character is interpreted - the deerstalker hat, for instance - but these contributions are relatively mundane, likely within the creative sphere that Paget felt...
moreThe link between word and image always fascinates me and it especially fascinates me when we’re looking at literature from a completely different time from the time in which I have lived in my 20 years of life. The Sherlock Holmes' images that we looked at today were quite interesting mostly because of his story that the image told and contrast to the story that the words were telling. It was a great conversation to conduct throughout the class because of the input from all of the different perspectives coming from all the different people in my class. The most common themes that we looked at throughout the images were the contrast between light and dark imagery and how the way that the pictures were shadowed and highlighted actually told a lot about what was going on in the story which I thought was extremely important to noye. It was nice to have some emphasis on that because that is something that I do not necessarily consciously look at right away when looking at a photo. I...
moreThe class discussions about Sydney Paget’s illustrations for “The Man With the Twisted Lip” by Arthur Conan Doyle struck a lot of interesting thoughts for me. The most prominent image in my mind has to be the illustration of the “Lascar scoundrel”. Our discussion mostly followed the word “Lascar” in relation to the illustration, however I also found the following use of the word “scoundrel” just as intriguing. “Scoundrel” is used as an adjective to further alienate and/or discriminate against the man in the drawing. It suggests that he is a rogue, lying man. Another familiar use of the word, is “scoundrel” as a way to describe vermin. In Paget’s illustration, this imagery comes forward in the way that the man’s shoulders are pushed into his ears, and in the beastly interpretation of how he is pushing the woman away. His body language reads aggressively, and the way his limbs are positioned in contrast to the woman are loose and unpoised. ...
moreIn the popular Sherlock Holmes series image, text and context worked together to convey character interactions that help the reader to better understand the scene. When looking specifically at the story The Adventure of the Speckled Band, the black and white illustrations held several similarities that displayed the crime scenes and characters. They worked together to also show perhaps the social class of the characters, family life, and the race. The illustrations all depict specific moments in the narrative, allowing readers to better understand expressions and reactions to the scene. While these images may not provide the reader with further information about the plot of the story, they help with visualizing the context of the interaction. When looking at other volumes of Sherlock Holmes, such as The Adventure of the Blue Carnuncle, they all provide similar illustrations that consist of characters engaging with one another. The images for these texts all help the reader to...
moreThis week's seminar focused on the Sherlock Holmes stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle, the stories are beloved in the genre of detective stories. A product of its time, although not an adequate excuse, the stories are rife with racist stereotypes of BIPOC and portray women in a light where they lack little agency. In the story, 'The Man with the Twisted Lip', one of the character's is seen trying to enter an opium den to look for her husband, but is stopped by the owner in what is portrayed as a very violent way. The man is 'othered' as someone who hails from South-east Asia but is depicted as dark. Sidney Paget's own biases likely influenced this depiction, the notion that someone that was not white, was dangerous, especially to respectable women of the upper classes. This is furthered seen through the way that their clothes are depicted: the man is depicted in assumed to be traditional clothes, but comes off more like rags; while, the woman is wearing a dress...
moreToday's class offered some interesting insights on Sherlock Holmes and its cultural context. Sidney Paget's illustrations reveal an aspect of the stories that is concealed or even otherwise absent in the text. What interested me specifically was the empathy and humanity displayed in the illustrations of Holmes for "The Adventure of the Speckled Band."
In the illustration titled "She raised her veil" we commented on the absence of the deerstalker cap and pipe, symbols that have come to represent Holmes in popular culture due to Paget's influence. The absence of these symbols is a conscious choice but not as complex as it may appear. It would be a common courtesy to remove one's cap when in the presence of a woman (especially when indoors) and smoking was also coded as a male activity. This shows a basic consideration and respect towards Helen Stoner as befitting her rank and status. Considering the lack of authority that Helen had under her stepfather, this action of her...
moreOscar Wilde's French tragedy in one act, Salome, was consored by the London Examiner of Plays in 1892 for its perverse depictions of biblical figures before it had a chance to premiere at the Palace Theatre, London.
Sources:
Bristow, Joseph. “Oscar Wilde (1854-1900),” Y90s Biographies , edited by Dennis Denisoff, 2010. Yellow Nineties 2.0, General Editor Lorraine Janzen Kooistra, Ryerson University Centre for Digital Humanities, 2019, https://1890s.ca/wilde_bio/.
Stallings, Kate, and Jeffrey Lou. "Salome." The Censorship Files, Oct 25, 2016, https://thecensorshipfiles.wordpress.com/volume-1/issue-1/salome/.
The term “decadence” had been in cultural use throughout Europe since at least the Middle Ages and generally refers to a prolonged state of societal moral decline. Its aesthetic uses, however, emerged in 19th century France. In its aesthetic connotation, decadence described a set of anti-Romantic approaches that denigrated the natural and moral in favour of the unnatural, the grotesque, and the taboo. Though often used a critique against artists, decadence was first used in a positive light by Gaultier in describing Baudelaire’s book of poems Les Fleurs du mal in 1868.
The Decadent movement was imported to the Victorians by the likes of Swinburne and Wilde, and coalesced with the Aesethic movement occurring in Britain. For instance, Wilde’s Decadent tragedy Salome—originally written in French while Wilde was living in Paris—used Mallarmé’s Hérodiade and Flaubert’s Hérodias (both retellings...
moreThe discussion seminars really helped in understanding the context in which Sherlock Holmes has been written and its implications in modern society. It’s interesting but also disappointing to see that the racial ideologies really impact an illustrator (and author’s) writing, but it makes sense. The fact that England had the whole desire of wanting exotic Eastern cultures but to keep them (and constantly remind them) of their “savagery” and “inferiority” to England really is something to research into. In regard to our own culture, it still plays heavily in the assumption of who is deemed the villain or the criminal—there’s a prejudice within the police system that paints BIPOC people as doing something “deviant” or indecent and therefore paint their whole image on trying to prove that bias. It’s sad to know that it had been a constant issue that hadn’t seemed to change much even as time progressed. The illustrations also helps, though, in understanding...
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Individual Entries
Out of all the readings I have done for this course, I found Oscar Wilde’s Salome to be the most difficult. I felt that the text, as well as the images were complicated and rooted in symbolism. I found the presentations today to be very helpful in understanding this symbolism. I saw a lot of gender representation throughout the illustrations, weather that be through non-conforming gender or a character very specifically being a man or a woman. I also thought the use of nudity was very interesting, especially considering the taboo around sexuality in the Victorian era. Overall, in terms of text/image/context I was able to see how the illustrations and the story work to challenge conforming ideologies during the time in which it was published. I also did not enjoy the trailer for the movie. I felt as though it did not capture the essence of the story or the images....
moreWith this weeks discussion of Oscar Wilde's Salome, I noticed the ways that the illustrations accompanying the text play on the idea of the male gaze, as was discussed by many of the presentations. Especially when analyzing how Salome's character is being depicted in the illustrations, it is easy to idenfity the ways in which Beardsley's images draw on the male gaze by the visual cues that they feature. For example, many of the images of Salome feature nudity and sensuality on the part of her character - she is either outwardly nude in the image, or the visual cues direct all of the attention to her. One specific image representative of this is the one entitled "The Peacock Skirt," in which although she is not nude, the viewers attention is drawn towards her. The skirt seems to encompass Salome in beauty and makes sure that the viewer is focusing on her. This idea is further proven when we consider the character standing next to her - they are being shown as small in...
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