While going over the curations for the different "Globlin Market" versions through the years and while studying my own assignment of the Beyond the looking glass rendition of "Globlin Market" I took into account the audience for the poem. Through the years the target audience has been changed even though the text has been the same. Though it was not originally meant for children and was seen as an adult text, through the years it has been interpreted as a childrens text at times. While looking at the different curations for the different versions I noticed that even Playboy had taken the poem and done a rendition of it the same year that it was taken by Beyong the Looking Glass to a be part of a collection of fantasy and fairy tales. I found this very interesting because of the major different in themes. There are really strong erotic elements in the text and which is also portrayed in the Laurence Housmans illustrations which were said to carry a lot of...
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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
During the virtual presentation of different editions and renditions of “Goblin Market” from Ryerson’s Archives and Special Collections it was interesting to see how many versions of this one text have been published internationally, especially the little pocket version. When tasked with individually curating these different editions for an exhibition, it was a challenge to find precise information because of how many different editions have been circulated over time. Since some of these editions of “Goblin Market” are older, it is missing some crucial information that can make curating these pieces easier such as artists publication dates or even the artists names which may not have been included when published. It was quite a surprise to see how different artists interpreted the poem for their illustrations. Since there was a split market for selling this poem to children and adults, the illustrations do have an impact on how the poem is perceived. There was one version of “...
moreThe process of curating various texts was an interesting and surprisingly varied experience, especially given that the text being looked at was Goblin Market. I had previously studied Goblin Market, but I was not entirely aware of the extensive amount of variations and editions the poem has seen. Through the process of curating and reading about these various renditions, it showed me how much a text can change and develop over time. Goblin Market has been represented as a poem, a picture book marketed to adults, a children's book, a mystery novel, and more. In addition to the different formats and audiences, the images are also different between the versions in order to heighten specific themes and concepts that may not have been pronounced in others. The diachronic model especially helped me understand these changes. My group looked at the various Housman editions of the poem, and seeing the contextual elements around the edition’s creation enhanced my...
moreI really enjoyed the interpretative process of curating the numerous editions and renditions of Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market. It really makes me realize that the process of judging a book by its cover is just as important as getting textual information from the work itself. At the same time, it also made me realize that modern-day interpretations really does influence and impose itself on Victorian texts and what they can or can’t handle.The process itself was fun as it made behave to actively look at the details of the illustrations that are often overlooked or skipped over.
I was honestly surprised that Goblin Market had been illustrated for children more so than the pornographic audience—not because of its sex and violence, but at the general idea that children would also found goblin Market interesting to read about. It makes me curious as to what their interpretations of the text would be if there was no illustrations to it—focusing...
moreEvery time Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market comes up in discussion, I typically feel that I have a good understanding of what kind of conversation will follow after. In today’s class however, my group focused on the contemporary renditions of the poem, which led my research to Polly Pen and Peggy Harmon’s theatre adaptation of the same name, Goblin Market. The most impactful thing I realized about theatre in my research is that the interpretation of a production is highly dependent on the time and place of the performance. Pen and Harmon’s production for example, opened 1985 off-Broadway in New York City during the height of the AIDs pandemic. Pen described the ideology of the play through a contemporary lens, bringing forward a modern perspective on the context of Rossetti’s...
moreThis was an interesting class. It was fun to see how Goblin Market was reprinted and redesigned to fit so many formats and appeal to such various audiences. I've read this poem in a previous class before and would not have expected it to be curated in a way to appeal to children. The fact that this story was redesigned through the years to go from something for children to read to being a part of Playboy is such an interesting and unexpected concept. With a few changes of the images, even if the text was printed in full and remained unchanged, this poem was now an appropriate children's tale. This was something I did not expect since the poem is so explicit and does have a lot of erotic references in the words. It was cool to look at how big an influence on the story these illustrations hold to how this poem is recieved. As well, I've also explored the exhibit that was presented to us today in previous courses but it was fun to look exclusively at this one piece by Rosetti...
moreAnalyzing the various different illustrations in different printings of Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market was really interesting this week. I won’t lie, I’ve read Goblin Market in the past, and it was not one of my favourite works, but looking at so many different versions of the poem with incredibly different artwork really enhanced my understanding of the poem and helped me see it in a new light. I was particularly interested in the way Playboy Magazine’s version of the poem completely changed where the emphasis lied within the poem. By including erotic paintings by Craft, who specialized in fantastical art, the story was turned into an erotic, almost pornographic tale, turning many of the scenes in the poems into sexual acts. When I first read Goblin Market, this was nothing like the version of the scenes I had in mind, so it was really interesting to see how by shaping the way these scenes are visualized, the meaning behind the text can be...
moreOne thing that stuck out to me in curating the various editions of Goblin Market was the dearth of paratextual info in earlier editions compared with editions from the mid-20th century onwards. I assume this reflects the material conditions of the Victorian period and early 20th century - either the technical or economic limitations preventing the inclusion of more comprehensive info regarding the date of publication, location of publication, etc. It made me wonder when exactly thorough paratext to open a book was commonplace in publishing. With respect to the particular edition I curated (the 1994 Gramery Books reprint of Florence Harrison's illustrated collection of Rossetti's poems), I found the context of its publication interesting - that it was published in the heyday of a renewed shcolarly interest in Rossetti's poetry and the illustrations which accompanied it, and that it provided an opportuntiy to collect/study such work in print at a time when original pressings...
moreDiachronic analysis enables the critic to focus on the physical material of the text instead of solely its body. In looking at the various editions of Goblin Market through the years, I found myself longing to hold the physical texts. There's an extra element of understanding in the materiality of an edition. I wanted to feel the binding, look at the paper quality and the ink used. Seeing the wear and aging on an individual book can often reveal the purpose and audience of the text.
The version of Goblin Market that I researched was the Collins' Clear-Type Press version pocketbook. The book itself is very petite and clearly designed for travel. This was interesting as none of the other books seemed to have this purpose in mind. Books are usually promoted within a strictly collectable realm. Another thing that intrigued me about the book was its lack of information on the illustrator. In fact, the illustrator is unnamed. I have another...
moreThis week's reading was truly shocking because of The Goblin Market's versatility in both interpretation, and in audience. While reading the poem initially, I immediately noticed the sexual connotations of the poem especially with the help of Professor Kooistra's annotations. However, I assumed because the poem was so sensual and sexual in both description and illustrations (the ones I had seen from previous readings of the poem) I never thought this poem could be targetted towards a young audience. However, after taking a closer look at Arthur Rackhams's illustrations, I noticed how his style of art focused immensley on children's innocent which to me was depicted by the soft pale faces of the characters and their rosy cheeks. The goblins were also extermely similar to animal like creatures in other children's books with a hint of fairy tale inspired drawings. Although the poem and its various illustartions prove its versetality in its analysis especially when it comes to...
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Individual Entries
The City and Guilds South London Technical Art School, formerly the Lambeth School of Art, was established in 1854 as a government specialized arts and crafts college located in central London, England. Clemence Housman (1861-1955) attended the school as a student of wood-engraving and lived nearby in Kennington with her brother Laurence Housman (1865-1959), who was also studying art at the time (Khan). Clemence Housman’s classes at the South London Art School greatly influenced her works. Most notably, The Were Wolf (1896), which she wrote with the intent of entertaining the fellow female wood-engraving students in her class at the Art School (Kooistra). In 2020, The City and Guilds South London Technical Art School functions as a non-profit institution and is credited as one of England’s longest-established art schools (The City and Guilds South London Technical Art School).
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Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti in 1906, with illustrations and coloured plates by Dion Clayton Calthrop, was published by T. C. & E. C. Jack in Edinburgh, Scotland. This is a temporary publishing company during the 20th-century that was active during the beginning of 1900’s and ending around 1951. This implies that the 1906 publication of Goblin Market was one of the first books to be released through the company. This lead for the poem to be further published with other artists illustrations throughout the years to come that contained both black and white images, as well as coloured. Relevant Sources: Kooistra, Lorraine Janzen. "Modern Markets for 'Goblin Market.'" Victorian Poetry, vol. 32, nos. 3-4, 1994, pp. 249-277. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40002818 |
Speaking specifically about the illustration I lead my discussion on, “Her face blanched with terror,” Paget was able to easily represent family life and women’s lack of independence in his imagery. As we know, Helen and Julia Stoner are under the oppressive control of their stepfather until they can be married. Such practice was not uncommon in the Victorian era. Together, Doyle and Paget were able to clearly represent the hierarchy of the family; the paternal figure controls the home, the assets, and the bodies under “his roof.” This is established by Sir Grimesby Roylott’s desire to maintain control of the girls’ inheritance but plotting their deaths – of which the attack on Julia is successful. The illustration helps to illuminate the girls' lack of independence; they live in Roylott’s home and follow his rule. Very rarely do you hear of people seeking the aid of private detectives in the twenty...
moreSidney Paget does something interesting when it comes to illustrating Sherlock Holmes; and that is, he almost contrasts the words being said. He does this in a way where the text and image relate and make sense and aren't contradictory. But, since he had creative freedom, we see where Paget brought in his own creative liberty and how he saw the characters and scenes he was illustrating for. When it came to the images discussed in presentations today, it is very clear that many if not all these images touched upon fin-de-siècle ideologies and prejudices held at that time. These are imperialism, classism, ableism, racism, and sexism. Many of Paget's images surrounding someone of a race other than white especially showed these prejudices. There was such a fear of the "other" that anyone who looked different was seemingly dangerous and violent. The only racialized man in "The Man With The Twisted Lip" was violent and illustrated to be seen coming out of the shadows. The only disabled...
moreDover Publications published the version of Goblin Market that included the illustrations by Laurence Housman. Important to note because the creation of this edition happened halfway across the world, in the United Kingdom. Laurence Housman was born in Worcestershire and his work has made it across the world to be studied and appreciated by so many. Dover Publications is still Located in Mineola, New York.
Source: Kooistra, Lorraine Janzen. “Laurence Housman (1865-1959),” 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/housman_bio/