The 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.
New Harmony Indiana was chosen by the Harmonie society out of a want for seclusion and more space. It had fertile soil and a useful waterway, and among the Wabash river there were many opportunities for future expansion, so on May 10th the Rappites chose to buy the 7,000 acres that was New Harmony. Also in New Harmony were areas suitable for vineyards and farming, which once again provided ample economic expansion. The location of New Harmony undoubtadbly set it up for economic success, which it had. After a while they had expanded to 20,000 acres, and had built over 160 homes.
Lydia Thompson's career in Burlesque Theater allowed her to travel from London all the way to New York. The map below shows Toole's Theater located at William IV Street in Westminster, London. This theater, later renamed the Folley Theatre by Thompson herself, staged several of Thompson's performances including various English adapted French operas and her most popular show, "A Husband in Cotton Wool." When Thompson and her troupe traveled to America in the late 1860's, they primarily performed at the Wood's Museum and Metropolitan located at 1221 Broadway (30th St.) New York, New York.
I 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.
In general, I would say that the curation process was much more difficult than I anticipated in order to fill out the information needed for the Rossetti exhibit. Maybe it was because my group was curating the more modern adaptations, which I would think would be easier, but there was a significant lack of resources online. As I was specifically curating the work of Lauren Wright Douglas, this may have been because Naiad Press was no longer still a publishing company which definitely contributes to the lack of information online.
Every 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.
This 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.
