Today’s class introduced the first samples of research in this course, applying the pressure of the final Capstone project.

            I was surprised when exploring through the Victorian Illustrated books in class to find the variety of genres that they can expand to. Specifically, for the book I focused on, The House of Joy, I was intrigued to find out that it focused on adult fairytales, which is something that I would assume to be most likely intended for a younger audience, if produced today.

Today I was given the opportunity to look at the Annancy Stories by Pamela Colman Smith. I was more than surprised when looking through this book. A lot of the illustrations caught my attention immediately and some so much that I just stared at the photo for an arguably long time. It was obvious that the person that wrote the stories was just as much invested as the person illustrating the images… and in this case it was the same person.

In today's class while in our smaller groups I got the opportunity to look into the illistrative novel "The Were-Wolf" by Clemence Housman published in 1896. I was suprised when we were doing our research by the feminist tones presented and even that the novel was written by a woman. When previously looking into victorian texts in my previous years I have noticed an overwhelming oppression of women through the roles that women placed.

This week in class, my group and I were tasked with creating a timeline entry for Clemence Housman’s The Were-Wolf, a gothic text situated around a monstrous female that terrorizes a remote village. I had never heard of the book before, so I was unaware of the surprisingly progressive feminist narrative, but I was even more astounded by the fact that not only had Clemence written it but she also had a significant role in illustrating the novel.

The concept of bitextuality—specifically the relationship between text and illustration being similar to masculinity, femininity and the reception by the audience—is intriguing to think about. In the explanation of the text being the male, domineering role; capable of standing on its own compared to the illustrations being feminine (incapable of independence and needing the text) is what stuck out to me. Going further on that notion, it could go two ways.

One of the concepts that we discussed in today's class was the relationship between text and image to create/produce meaning. More specifically, bitextual theory, or the way in which the "text and image engage in terms of shared subject and cultural context... and furthermore, the way in which the reader engages with the image and text to create meaning..." (Kooistra). Personally, when I read, I tend to focus on the text rather than the images because I assume that's where the 'story' or meaning is.