Specifically in "The Man With the Twisted Lip," the contrast between a text and its imge become obvious, as do the fin-de-siecle ideologies that both represent. In the image of the man that is described as being a "professional begger," ideologies surrounding homelessness and disability are represented, refecting common stereotypes around both that were common in society at the time of illustrtion and publication. Beginning with depictions of homelessness, Sidney Paget, although steering away from the description in the text that paints the man as monsrous and villanous, he upholds common stereotype with his use of dark and light imagery as well as facial expression. There is darkness surrounding the homeless man who the readers do not yet know, and his facial expression makes him appear helpless to the viewers. The dark energy that seems to be surrounding him furthers the idea that this character is the villain of the tale, and makes this idea known to readers. The same is true...
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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
This map documents significant places associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, who were a nineteenth-century group of new wave artists (poets, painters, and critics). The goal of the Pre-Raphaelite movement was to go against traditional art and create something for the ‘modern age’.
The movement for women’s suffrage took many forms and involved many different groups and societies. The National Union of Women’s suffrage Societies (NUWSS) campaigned peacefully and aided the movement by signing petitions and publishing pamphlets and newspapers. The women involved in peaceful actions were known as suffragists. Organizations such as the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) and the Women’s Tax Resistance League (WTRL), resorted to more violent actions such as setting fires, vandalizing property, and hassling government officials. Women involved in the militant part of the Suffrage movement such as Clemence Housman were called suffragettes. In 1910 Clemence joined the WTRL and participated in protests which called for members to withhold their tax payments until the right to vote was won. On Friday, September 29th, 1911, Clemence was arrested outside of her Kensington home for purposefully resisting tax payment. Her arrest was supported by the...
moreSince the publication of Mary Wollstonecraft’s feminist text, Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), the women’s movement in Britain had grown exponentially. In the 1830s, the women’s movement turned their attention to women’s suffrage, with various groups dedicated to enfranchisement forming by the 1860s. The inability to vote meant women had few rights in comparison to men. As a result, the vote quickly became a symbol of civil and gender inequality that impassioned Victorian women across Britain. Groups such as the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) and the Artist Suffrage League (1907) relentlessly signed petitions, made speeches, held public demonstrations, and published feminist pictorial propaganda in journals and newspapers to garner support for the cause. Drawing inspiration from these groups, feminist author Clemence Housman and her brother Laurence, established the Suffrage Atelier in 1909, setting up headquarters in their small Kensington home. Led...
moreI found this week to be especially interesting because, rather than analyzing a story as I am so used to doing, I was simply asked to research and relay the technical details of my rendition of Christina Rosetti's Goblin Market. What I found so interesting about this was how my rendition had been altered in relation to its original publication, in order to suit its intended child audience. Examining the details of the illustrations - which were devoid of the poem's sexual subtext - really emphasized this fact, and led me to consider how one text can be interpreted for specific readerships. This became even more evident as I was able to look at my peers' curations; there were some that emphasized the poem's eroticism and even others that were only vaguely reminiscent of the original poem. Examining all the editions/renditions allowed me to understand just how versatile Rosetti's poem is; even further than that, these renditions show how much of a cultural...
moreI found the process of curation an interesting exercise because it challenged us to look at texts in the context of their production rather than their textual content. This is, for the most part, the opposite of what we have been trained to do as English students. It was nonetheless interesting to analyze a text in the context of its production: its history, its publishers, its editors, etc. “Goblin Market”s extensive history of reproduction was especially interesting because we got to trace its cultural transformation from poem, to art book, to children’s fairy story, to a Freudian treasure-trove, to pulp fiction and so on. I gained a new appreciation for the knowledge contained in the paratext.
However, this week was also an example of how virtual classes can be a hindrance. The curation exercise would undoubtedly be much easier if we were able to physically access the texts we were working with, rather than...
moreWhile 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...
moreDuring 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...
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Individual Entries
Hatchard's bookshop was founded in 1797 by John Hatchards. It is London's oldest bookshop, located at 187 Piccadilly Street. Its location has changed slightly through the years, but always on Piccadilly. Hatchard's has attracted such prolific writers as Oscar Wilde, Beatrix Potter, Lord Byron, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It hosted the early meetings of the Royal Society of Literature (founded in 1820).
The popular Atalanta magazine, marketed as a high-class literary publication for young girls, was launched by Hatchards in 1887. It was distributed monthly, for the cost of sixpence. Unfortunately, Atalanta magazine was discontinued in December 1898.
During William Holeman Hunt’s career, he illustrated three different interpretations of the “Lady of Shalott”. His most infamous rendition of the “Lady of Shallot” was painted over the course of twenty years using oil paint. This final art piece was displayed in the Wadsworth Atheneum, located at 600 Main Street, in Hartford, Connecticut. The museum was founded by Daniel Wadsworth in 1842, the same year that the "Lady of Shallot" was published for Tennyson's collection Poems. Although he initially intended to establish a “Gallery of Fine Arts”, Wadsworth redirected his course toward a more culturally based institution. The Wadsworth Atheneum displays art and artifacts that are dedicated to history, literature, art, and science.
A Christmas Carol does reference the city of London a few times in the story but does not include any connections to real geographical locations within the city. It is appropriate that the story take place in London since that is where Charles Dickens lived and how he wanted to share this story about poverty and labour with the people in London. The timing of book’s release was also important because it was just before Christmas and the novella made a popular gift for many who could afford it for five shillings. Many of Dickens’ works also took place within London as well.
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 |