ENG 910: English Capstone Seminar: Week Eight

Submitted by Anjali Jaikarran on

This week's seminar was about Laurence Houseman's 'House of Joy', a series of short stories or fairytales published in 1895, with illustrations that were wood-engraved by his sister, Clemence Houseman. The text is filled with many beautiful yet tragic stories accompanied by equally beautiful yet tragic illustrations. Fairytales in the Victorian era were known for being a method of educating young children, by teaching them social mores and customs. Some fairytale authors who accomplished this through their writing include Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm.

ENG910 - Blog Post #8

Submitted by Andrea Aguiar on

I found the discussions this week some of the most interesting of the course thusfar, especially in the case of discussing Laurence Housman's The House of Joy. What made this novel and this discussion stand out to me was that through viewing and analyzing the different images that are included in the book for various fairytales, it was easy to recognize imagery that had the same thematic implications throughout the entire book.

Blog Post #8 || Nov 5th || Module 8

Submitted by Alicia Beggs-Holder on

I personally liked Houseman’s fairytales especially as they seemed very different from the other works we’ve read in class. It’s interesting to know that he’d been influenced not only by Oscar Wilde’s arrest but his sister’s participation in the women’s movement. I’ve personally always liked fairytales because they were this space that were catered to children (most of the time) but with Housman actively throwing in messages of shedding the constraints of traditional Victorian notions—it’s nice to see.

Blog Post #8: November 5th

Submitted by Fahimah Hamidavi on

Something that I found really interesting during this weeks discussion of Laurence Housman’s The House of Joy was how Laurence’s own sexuality influenced the illustrations even when the illustrations depicted heterosexual couples. Kyle brought up a really interesting point during Alicia’s presentation on “The Story of the Herons” about how the the Prince Heron’s longing to return to his old life as a bird could be read as a gay man longing to be freed from a heterosexual relationship.

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