Our class exhibition designed on COVE focuses on the history of children’s literature through canonical texts. Students will select one work from a list of chronologically arranged books, choosing 4-5 images for a virtual display case to illuminate the chosen book’s importance to the history of children’s literature. Students will write an introduction, headers, and captions for their case, complete a reflection on their experiences mounting an online exhibition on COVE, and contribute to an assessment of the exhibit.
To better understand the world of Jane Austen's works, we need to understand the society she is writing in. Even though she does not often describe what her characters are dressed in, when she does bring up fashion, it is often notable in terms of character personality, social status, or plot. Regency fashion is notable in its distinct rejection of the former era of fashion as it had neoclassical influence, simplicity, and natural beauty.
Assemblies, balls, and dancing are central to the plots and themes of many of Jane Austen’s novels. Similarly, these events were central to sociability during the Georgian and Regency Eras, as they provided a socially acceptable setting for men and women to meet and begin forming relationships. Knowledge of these aspects of society help readers to better understand Austen’s writing. This exhibit displays various aspects of balls and dancing during the Regency Era, including assembly rooms, music, dancing styles, dress code, and overall ballroom culture and etiquette to provide historical context for the works of Jane Austen.
A gallery exhibit showcasing the military, their role, and their impact on the society and world of Jane Austen and her novels. As Jane Austen spent a majority of her life during wartime and had brothers in the military, she was very familiar with how her militia behaved off of the battlefield. Many of the images presented are drawings of genuine military artifacts used by the English Miliary during the Napoleonic, French, and American Revolution wars. Other images are satirical pieces depicted the lives of the English common people during wartime. Regardless, the knowledge and understanding gained from each image gives the reader context into Jane Austen’s life and why she depicted the military in her novels in certain fashions.
A gallery exhibit showcasing religion in Jane Austen's Society. A variety of images are displayed and shown, including religious clothing from the time in which Jane Austen was alive, an 1806 King James Bible, old Church documents playfully filled out by Austen and a marriage witness signature from her and her sister, stained glass windows, and church pews that discuss designated seating between rich and poor individuals. The Anglican customs and beliefs are displayed throughout each of these gallery exhibits, as well as the extensive history of the Church of England, how Anglicanism shaped Austen's life, and how her career was affected by religion.
The shift from Abstract Expressionism in the 1940s to Pop Art in the 1960s refelcted societal changes influenced by postwar consumerism, technological advancements, and the rise of mass media.
While Abstract Expressionism emphasized emotional intensity and individual expression, Pop Art used bold, familiar imagery and commercial aesthetics to critique violence and address pressing social issues, using irony to engage a wider audience in anti-war and nonviolence messages. Pop Art also functioned as a protest against the perceived elitism of Abstract Expressionism, which, with its detachment from reality, was seen as inaccessible to the general public. Pop Art grounded its imagery in the real world, allowing viewers to connect more directly with their contemporary experience.
In a 1908 interview that appeared in The Strand, illustrator Sidney H. Sime claims his work was deeply influenced by his own "omnivorous and indiscriminate reading" (notably including works by Poe and De Quincey), by illustrator Aubrey Beardsley, and by Japanese art. According to Sime, Beardsley's morbid temperament and "extraordinary" technique had undoubtedly influenced himself and nearly every one of his contemporary illustrators. He claimed that the same was also true of Japanese Art. An illustrator of things morbid, strange, fantastical, and occult, it is fitting that Sime would come to illustrate literary works of fantasy, occult, and the weird, including fantasy works by Lord Dunsany and the weird/horror tales of Arthur Machen, an author whose early works were also illustrated by Beardsley. In this exhibit, we explore how both Beardsley and Sime contributed to the difficult work of visualizing strange, unseen worlds and chilling, ineffable horrors that (as Machen...
This gallery includes images and information to supplement the 1851 narrative “An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street," by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, in the collection Shades of Meaning: A Haunted Victorians Anthology.
This gallery includes images and information to supplement the 1852 narrative “The Old Nurse's Story," by Elizabeth Gaskell, in the collection Shades of Meaning: A Haunted Victorians Anthology.
This gallery includes images and information to supplement the 1882 narrative "The Open Door," by Charlotte Riddell, in the collection Shades of Meaning: A Haunted Victorians Anthology.
This gallery includes images and information to supplement the 1892 narrative “The Skeleton,” by Rabindranath Tagore, in the collection Shades of Meaning: A Haunted Victorians Anthology.
This gallery includes images and information to supplement the 1894 narrative “Herself,” by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, in the collection Shades of Meaning: A Haunted Victorians Anthology.
Immigration has profoundly shaped New Jersey's cultural identity, enriching its communities through diverse traditions, cuisines, and arts. Since 1960, waves of immigrants have revitalized neighborhoods, fueled economic growth, and introduced new perspectives that define the state’s vibrant and inclusive character. This exhibit explores the dynamic ways immigration has woven itself into the fabric of New Jersey, celebrating the stories, contributions, and cultural legacies that continue to inspire its future.
Our class gallery on COVE will focus on the Great Exhibition of 1851—Prince Albert’s brainchild and, to the Victorians, the greatest sight in the history of the world. The Great Exhibition, which ran from May 1 to October 15, 1851, celebrated the global prominence of British industry and the manifold achievements of the “civilized” world. Approximately 6 million people—a third of the British population of that time—visited the Crystal Palace, a cast-iron and glass building erected in Hyde Park to house the exhibitions on display. Over 40 times, Queen Victoria visited the...
The major premise of EN 230: The BIble As Literature is that the Bible is not only a seminal text of Western culture as the foundational texts for Judaism...
This gallery collects examples of the ‘afterlives’ of the Victorian Gothic – the ways in which it has persisted into the 20th/21st centuries in literature and in all kinds of popular culture forms – movies, TV, podcasts and other online narratives, manga, anime, comic books , photographs and images – almost any form you can think of. Students in the class are collecting these and contributing them to the gallery from which we draw examples we’ll look at at the end of each class.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning's original manuscript of "The African" was completed in the early 1820s when EBB was in her early teens. Inspiration for the narrative poem came from her cousin, Richard Barrett, who owned sugar plantations in Jamaica. EBB kept Barrett's written account of an escaped slave, originally named Copperbottom, but altered the tone of the story significantly in her version.
Richard Barrett (1789-1839) was a cousin of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's father Edward Barrett Moulton Barrett. Richard Barrett was a prominent political figure for much of his life, speaking in parliament on behalf of the Jamaican legislature on matters concerning emancipation. Though he was himself the owner of two sugar plantations in St. James, he had a reputation for nonviolence towards the enslaved people who worked on the family's land, a point potentially supported by the sparing of at least two of the Barrett family's plantation houses, Greenwood Great House and Cinnamon Hill, during the 1831 slave uprisings. Barrett shared this story of a runaway slave with a young EBB, who then used it as the inspiration for her narrative poem, "The African."...
Goodness can come from unexpected sources. Despite the prince's physical disability, this moment contrasts with his earlier isolation and emphasizes the idea that there is empathy in the world. This scene contrasts with traditional Victorian norms in the sense of masculinity as a form of nurturing over dominance, a person rooted in care and empathy over physical superiority. The black man's act of kindness pushes the idea of empathy with disability, a man who seeks to uplift through kindness rather than dominate. The man's skin colour is an important aspect of his kindness and rejection of toxic masculinity. His black skin makes him a target of discrimination and differential treatment, the same sort of treatment disabled men face, suggesting...
