Exhibit:

Strange Victorians Gallery

Preview of images

The Victorian period was one of great change for Britain. Comprised of the years of Queen Victoria’s reign (1837-1901), it featured the rapid industrialization and urbanization of Britain, and the radical expansion of the British empire. Although these changes improved the quality of life for some Victorians, many more were forced to work under inhumane conditions, live in unsanitary and insalubrious environments, or suffered the violent oppressions of colonial rule. While we may think of the Victorian period as a distant, different era, this class argues that Victorians faced some of the same issues we deal with today, including systemic racism, sexism and gender-based oppression, opioid addiction, ecological disasters, and public health crises, to name but a few. 

“Strange Victorians: Mystery, Madness, and the Monstrous” explores how the boundaries around that which we consider strange, other, and abnormal are established, policed, and sometimes breached. Of course, any examination of the strange also invites us to interrogate what we consider “normal,” particularly in a period during which so many cultural norms were established. In general, through its examination of a series of popular, best-selling novels and a selection of supplemental texts, this course examines historical, philosophical, and cultural trends that shaped the era’s literature and were shaped by it. Moreover, it will consider what parallels and through lines we can draw between the Victorian era and the twenty-first century and contemplate the value of continuing to study Victorian authors and texts today. 

Images in this Exhibit

Victorians and Opium

The First Drug Discovered

Derived from the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum), opium has been recorded as the first discovered drug and has been used in medical practices for centuries. In his book Opium: A History, Martin Booth traces the historical uses of opium in medicine. He notes, “The plant has a dubious history. Some horticulturists consider it evolved naturally, but there are others who claim it is a cultivor developed by century upon century of human cultivation” (1). The history of opium can be followed from Mesopotamia in the 4th millennium BCE, to where...
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was a group of young English painters founded in the year 1848, relatively new for the Victorian Period. The group was founded in a strong reaction against the Royal Academy of Art. The leaders of the movement saw the Royal Academy as unimaginative and too reliant on its own history. This counter-culture movement was inspired heavily by Italian art in the 14th and 15th centuries, specifically the Italian renaissance before the artist Raphael, giving them the name “The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood”. The movement was spearheaded by three artists John Everett...
Governess Ads from The Times of London

As the ads suggest, the term “governess” itself is more ambiguous than most realize. As Jeanne Peterson illustrates, “the term ‘governess’ could refer to a woman who taught in a school, a woman who lived at home and travelled to her employer's house to teach [...], or a woman who lived in her employer's home and who taught the children and served as a companion to them” (4). Essentially, the term governess is an all-encompassing term for almost any woman in education. This ambiguity is a major factor in the plight of the governess. The term itself doesn’t give a clear explanation of the...