Focusing on critically neglected works by prolific writer Netta Syrett (1865–1943), this article reveals her New Woman dialogue with aestheticism and decadence in her early short stories written for the iconic 1890s periodical The Yellow Book: primarily, ‘A Correspondence’ (1895) and ‘Far Above Rubies’ (1897). Together they trace Syrett’s increasingly assertive voice and navigation of the period’s seemingly competing but intersecting aesthetic, decadent and feminist movements. I argue that Syrett uses aesthetic and decadent discourses as strategic vehicles for the articulation of the evolving feminist ideas more fully expressed in her later pro-suffrage works. Specifically, her stories register her response to the male elitism and misogyny of aestheticism and decadence through a critical engagement with their tropes (exotic setting; aestheticized interior; femme fatale) and discourses (of mythology; statuary; floriography) in order to challenge the objectification and marginalization of women by masculinist culture using its own terms of reference. Syrett’s stories are thus discursive spaces through which she articulates anxieties about women’s place in, or exclusion from, aestheticism and decadence, asserting her role in these movements as both participant and critic. This article thus offers a more comprehensive understanding of the evolving discourses of, as well as the dialogues and debates enacted by, fin-de-siècle women’s writing, shedding new light on the aesthetic and decadent movements.
{"title":"A New Woman Dialogue with Aestheticism and Decadence: Netta Syrett’s Short Stories for The Yellow Book","authors":"Lucy Ella Rose","doi":"10.1093/jvcult/vcad044","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jvcult/vcad044","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Focusing on critically neglected works by prolific writer Netta Syrett (1865–1943), this article reveals her New Woman dialogue with aestheticism and decadence in her early short stories written for the iconic 1890s periodical The Yellow Book: primarily, ‘A Correspondence’ (1895) and ‘Far Above Rubies’ (1897). Together they trace Syrett’s increasingly assertive voice and navigation of the period’s seemingly competing but intersecting aesthetic, decadent and feminist movements. I argue that Syrett uses aesthetic and decadent discourses as strategic vehicles for the articulation of the evolving feminist ideas more fully expressed in her later pro-suffrage works. Specifically, her stories register her response to the male elitism and misogyny of aestheticism and decadence through a critical engagement with their tropes (exotic setting; aestheticized interior; femme fatale) and discourses (of mythology; statuary; floriography) in order to challenge the objectification and marginalization of women by masculinist culture using its own terms of reference. Syrett’s stories are thus discursive spaces through which she articulates anxieties about women’s place in, or exclusion from, aestheticism and decadence, asserting her role in these movements as both participant and critic. This article thus offers a more comprehensive understanding of the evolving discourses of, as well as the dialogues and debates enacted by, fin-de-siècle women’s writing, shedding new light on the aesthetic and decadent movements.","PeriodicalId":43921,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Victorian Culture","volume":"6 11","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-01-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139381126","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Day in the Life","authors":"Susie Steinbach","doi":"10.1093/jvcult/vcad046","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jvcult/vcad046","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43921,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Victorian Culture","volume":"54 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-01-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139384289","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
While the term ‘alienation’ is frequently mentioned in criticism of sensation fiction, there is a lack of a stringent definition of this term. This article aims to address this gap with a focused examination of the depiction of alienation in three sensation novels, Lady Audley’s Secret (1862) by M. E. Braddon, East Lynne (1861) by Mrs Henry Wood, and Basil (1852) by Wilkie Collins. Borrowing a critical framework from contemporary philosopher Rahel Jaeggi, the article sees alienation as an obstructed relation of ‘appropriation’. According to Jaeggi, to appropriate is, briefly, to take oneself and one’s world at one’s own command. The relation of appropriation bespeaks a more profound relationship between the self and the world than ownership. Previous studies of sensation heroines often associate their alienation with their desires for material property. With Jaeggi’s critical framework, however, this article moves forward by identifying a parallel between the heroines’ troubled desires for material possessions and their problematic relationships in life. Through a Jaeggian lens, all three texts illustrate the heroines’ dispossession of the self and dispossession of property as profoundly, even structurally, linked. A Jaeggian reading of the novels also provides new insights into the genre’s ideological function, particularly in relation to the limited social roles and precarious hold on the material world faced by ambitious Victorian women.
{"title":"Alienated Heroines in Basil, Lady Audley’s Secret, and East Lynne: A Jaeggian Reading","authors":"Rui Qian","doi":"10.1093/jvcult/vcad043","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jvcult/vcad043","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 While the term ‘alienation’ is frequently mentioned in criticism of sensation fiction, there is a lack of a stringent definition of this term. This article aims to address this gap with a focused examination of the depiction of alienation in three sensation novels, Lady Audley’s Secret (1862) by M. E. Braddon, East Lynne (1861) by Mrs Henry Wood, and Basil (1852) by Wilkie Collins. Borrowing a critical framework from contemporary philosopher Rahel Jaeggi, the article sees alienation as an obstructed relation of ‘appropriation’. According to Jaeggi, to appropriate is, briefly, to take oneself and one’s world at one’s own command. The relation of appropriation bespeaks a more profound relationship between the self and the world than ownership. Previous studies of sensation heroines often associate their alienation with their desires for material property. With Jaeggi’s critical framework, however, this article moves forward by identifying a parallel between the heroines’ troubled desires for material possessions and their problematic relationships in life. Through a Jaeggian lens, all three texts illustrate the heroines’ dispossession of the self and dispossession of property as profoundly, even structurally, linked. A Jaeggian reading of the novels also provides new insights into the genre’s ideological function, particularly in relation to the limited social roles and precarious hold on the material world faced by ambitious Victorian women.","PeriodicalId":43921,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Victorian Culture","volume":"9 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-01-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139385937","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Amelia B. Edwards (1831–1892) was renowned for her profound mastery of Egyptology, possessing a knowledge some said surpassed that of her male counterparts. Her archaeological endeavours in Egypt merged with a vivid narrative approach, evident in seminal works such as A Thousand Miles up the Nile (1877) and her captivating lectures across Britain and America. This harmonious blend of meticulous observation and romantic aesthetics not only carved her niche as a distinguished Egyptologist, but also heralded her as a forerunner in public history, adept at fusing erudite exploration with charming storytelling. Set against the tapestry of the Romantic era, Edwards forged a distinctive narrative, eschewing traditional academic boundaries to imbue her writings with heartfelt sentiment. This article delves into Edwards’ impact on Egyptology’s popularization: from her pivotal 1873 Egyptian sojourn, followed by her compelling lectures, to her personally curated Egyptian collection at home. With an adept fusion of artistic verve and academic rigour, Edwards bridged literature and archaeology. Her legacy signifies a refreshing deviation from orthodox methodologies, presenting a more immersive perspective on ancient Egypt. In stark contrast to the staid styles of her contemporary archaeological peers, she proclaimed herself the only romancer also versed in Egyptology, ardently championing a scientific discourse with broader appeal.
{"title":"Amelia B. Edwards and Romantic Egyptology","authors":"William Bainbridge","doi":"10.1093/jvcult/vcad040","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jvcult/vcad040","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Amelia B. Edwards (1831–1892) was renowned for her profound mastery of Egyptology, possessing a knowledge some said surpassed that of her male counterparts. Her archaeological endeavours in Egypt merged with a vivid narrative approach, evident in seminal works such as A Thousand Miles up the Nile (1877) and her captivating lectures across Britain and America. This harmonious blend of meticulous observation and romantic aesthetics not only carved her niche as a distinguished Egyptologist, but also heralded her as a forerunner in public history, adept at fusing erudite exploration with charming storytelling. Set against the tapestry of the Romantic era, Edwards forged a distinctive narrative, eschewing traditional academic boundaries to imbue her writings with heartfelt sentiment. This article delves into Edwards’ impact on Egyptology’s popularization: from her pivotal 1873 Egyptian sojourn, followed by her compelling lectures, to her personally curated Egyptian collection at home. With an adept fusion of artistic verve and academic rigour, Edwards bridged literature and archaeology. Her legacy signifies a refreshing deviation from orthodox methodologies, presenting a more immersive perspective on ancient Egypt. In stark contrast to the staid styles of her contemporary archaeological peers, she proclaimed herself the only romancer also versed in Egyptology, ardently championing a scientific discourse with broader appeal.","PeriodicalId":43921,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Victorian Culture","volume":"5 16","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135086965","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract In recent years, there has been considerable interest in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century cultural practice of Britons wearing indigenous dress, as well as debate as to what motivated people to re-fashion their identity in such radical ways. Typically, these practices have been viewed either as acts of cultural appropriation, or occasionally as acts of solidarity with other cultures. This article focuses on one individual, the antiquarian Egyptologist Sir John Gardner Wilkinson (1797–1875), who wore Turkish dress whilst in Egypt, and was depicted wearing the same dress by the portrait artist Henry Wyndham Phillips, in 1843/44. Despite being reproduced in countless histories of Egyptology, archaeology and beyond, there currently exists no sustained critical analysis of Wilkinson’s relationship with this costume. I contend that Wilkinson’s choice of Turkish dress and his engagement with such clothing was both sustained and complicated. It reflected simple practicalities, but also an awareness of socio-political conditions in Egypt which were inadequately understood at an official level, due to high-handed expectations about how Britons should and should not behave, to bolster Britain’s national image abroad. At the same time, the same clothing could be interpreted differently by other audiences, and Phillips’s painting of Wilkinson – the components of which are identified for the first time – emerges as an attempt at self-fashioning on Wilkinson’s part, to cement his recently acquired status as a recognized authority about ancient Egypt. These concerns are applicable to other western scholars and travellers active in the Near East in the early nineteenth century.
{"title":"Sir John Gardner Wilkinson (1797–1875) in Turkish Dress, at Thebes: The Self-Fashioning of an Antiquarian Egyptologist","authors":"Robert Frost","doi":"10.1093/jvcult/vcad019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jvcult/vcad019","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In recent years, there has been considerable interest in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century cultural practice of Britons wearing indigenous dress, as well as debate as to what motivated people to re-fashion their identity in such radical ways. Typically, these practices have been viewed either as acts of cultural appropriation, or occasionally as acts of solidarity with other cultures. This article focuses on one individual, the antiquarian Egyptologist Sir John Gardner Wilkinson (1797–1875), who wore Turkish dress whilst in Egypt, and was depicted wearing the same dress by the portrait artist Henry Wyndham Phillips, in 1843/44. Despite being reproduced in countless histories of Egyptology, archaeology and beyond, there currently exists no sustained critical analysis of Wilkinson’s relationship with this costume. I contend that Wilkinson’s choice of Turkish dress and his engagement with such clothing was both sustained and complicated. It reflected simple practicalities, but also an awareness of socio-political conditions in Egypt which were inadequately understood at an official level, due to high-handed expectations about how Britons should and should not behave, to bolster Britain’s national image abroad. At the same time, the same clothing could be interpreted differently by other audiences, and Phillips’s painting of Wilkinson – the components of which are identified for the first time – emerges as an attempt at self-fashioning on Wilkinson’s part, to cement his recently acquired status as a recognized authority about ancient Egypt. These concerns are applicable to other western scholars and travellers active in the Near East in the early nineteenth century.","PeriodicalId":43921,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Victorian Culture","volume":"63 7-8","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135455376","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Beginning with a full text search for the term ‘provincialism’ across all entries in the OED Online, this article tracks ‘provincialism’ through the digitized fiction of the nineteenth century, eavesdropping on the ways in which the term was used in a dataset of references drawn from 165 nineteenth-century novels brought together from the British Library 19th Century Collection and the Hathi Trust Digital Library. The focus is not on a close reading of a small number of novels, a novel subgenre, or iterations of a single novel, but on a close reading of multiple short, references to the term ‘provincialism’ drawn from a large number of nineteenth-century digitized novels. Attention is concentrated on the textually small, the fleeting yet potent uses of the term deployed by nineteenth-century novelists writing in a mass cultural medium with a local and global reach. The findings offer up a relational and multidimensional picture of the term aggregated from the textually small, as it plays out in relation to class, gender, the city, the four nations of the UK, the British Empire and the wider world.
{"title":"“I didn’t know there were so many kinds of people and so many sorts of provincialism in the world’’: Tracking Provincialism Through the Nineteenth-Century Corpus","authors":"Helen Anne O’Neill","doi":"10.1093/jvcult/vcad032","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jvcult/vcad032","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Beginning with a full text search for the term ‘provincialism’ across all entries in the OED Online, this article tracks ‘provincialism’ through the digitized fiction of the nineteenth century, eavesdropping on the ways in which the term was used in a dataset of references drawn from 165 nineteenth-century novels brought together from the British Library 19th Century Collection and the Hathi Trust Digital Library. The focus is not on a close reading of a small number of novels, a novel subgenre, or iterations of a single novel, but on a close reading of multiple short, references to the term ‘provincialism’ drawn from a large number of nineteenth-century digitized novels. Attention is concentrated on the textually small, the fleeting yet potent uses of the term deployed by nineteenth-century novelists writing in a mass cultural medium with a local and global reach. The findings offer up a relational and multidimensional picture of the term aggregated from the textually small, as it plays out in relation to class, gender, the city, the four nations of the UK, the British Empire and the wider world.","PeriodicalId":43921,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Victorian Culture","volume":"62 ","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135977060","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This article builds upon Bernard Lightman and Peter Bowler’s works on the non-Darwinian nature of Victorian evolution, arguing that while their arguments helpfully reorient our understanding of evolution’s historiography, they underestimate the diversity of evolutionary theory in the Victorian era. Victorian evolution was highly idiosyncratic, as each individual (scientist, author, or reader) interpreted evolution according to his or her own preconceptions, resulting in a myriad of evolutionary theories. To illustrate this diversity, this article examines the work of Andrew Lang, a prolific late-nineteenth-century journalist, anthropologist, and fairy-tale enthusiast. I focus on two of his largely unstudied works to demonstrate how he exposed and critiqued Victorian assumptions about evolution and the origins of the theory. The first work, ‘Higgins, the Inventor of Evolution’ (1897), uses satire to reveal that evolution’s theoretical history was often overlooked in the nineteenth century. The second, The Princess Nobody (1884), is a children’s fairy tale that exemplifies how fairy-tale tropes can help modern readers grasp evolutionary ideas. Significantly, both works recycle older texts that also address evolutionary questions, making Lang a participant in a folkloric tradition of interpreting and critiquing evolutionary theory. Lang viewed evolutionary theory as similar to a mythic story that is told and reinterpreted through the generations. His writing demonstrates that the origins of evolutionary theory are ambiguous, and that traditional fairy tales convey ideas about human origins and kinship with animals that predate Darwin’s studies.
{"title":"The Folklore of Evolution in Andrew Lang’s Writings","authors":"Anna McCullough","doi":"10.1093/jvcult/vcad041","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jvcult/vcad041","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article builds upon Bernard Lightman and Peter Bowler’s works on the non-Darwinian nature of Victorian evolution, arguing that while their arguments helpfully reorient our understanding of evolution’s historiography, they underestimate the diversity of evolutionary theory in the Victorian era. Victorian evolution was highly idiosyncratic, as each individual (scientist, author, or reader) interpreted evolution according to his or her own preconceptions, resulting in a myriad of evolutionary theories. To illustrate this diversity, this article examines the work of Andrew Lang, a prolific late-nineteenth-century journalist, anthropologist, and fairy-tale enthusiast. I focus on two of his largely unstudied works to demonstrate how he exposed and critiqued Victorian assumptions about evolution and the origins of the theory. The first work, ‘Higgins, the Inventor of Evolution’ (1897), uses satire to reveal that evolution’s theoretical history was often overlooked in the nineteenth century. The second, The Princess Nobody (1884), is a children’s fairy tale that exemplifies how fairy-tale tropes can help modern readers grasp evolutionary ideas. Significantly, both works recycle older texts that also address evolutionary questions, making Lang a participant in a folkloric tradition of interpreting and critiquing evolutionary theory. Lang viewed evolutionary theory as similar to a mythic story that is told and reinterpreted through the generations. His writing demonstrates that the origins of evolutionary theory are ambiguous, and that traditional fairy tales convey ideas about human origins and kinship with animals that predate Darwin’s studies.","PeriodicalId":43921,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Victorian Culture","volume":"75 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135412803","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This article investigates the visual representation of Irish Catholicism in mid-nineteenth century genre painting through a close analysis of St Patrick’s Day (1856), a picturesque genre painting by the Scottish artist Erskine Nicol. In doing so, it will explore why artists like Nicol, Frederic William Burton and others chose to equate Irish rural Catholicism with romantic ideas of nature and outdoor ‘primitive’ worship. This tradition of representation will be examined in the context of contemporary Catholic institutional expansion across Ireland following the removal of the legal disabilities known as the ‘penal laws’ in 1829, and the parallel emphasis on the church building as the location of worship, the sacraments, and Catholic devotional life. To date, scholars of Nicol’s oeuvre have tended to focus on Nicol’s representation of an Irish national ‘type’ or ‘character’. My reading of Nicol’s St Patrick’s Day, however, aims to extend the art historical investigation of the signification of the Irish stereotype in Victorian painting, and to examine Nicol’s painting within the interwoven frameworks of national identity and religious identity. This analysis of St Patrick’s Day is rooted in a consideration of both genre and historical context, facilitating new insights into ideas of ‘peasant’ or ‘primitive’ Catholicism as central to mid-Victorian representations of the Irish ‘national character’.
{"title":"Erskine Nicol and the representation of national and religious identities in nineteenth-century Ireland","authors":"Niamh NicGhabhann","doi":"10.1093/jvcult/vcad039","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jvcult/vcad039","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article investigates the visual representation of Irish Catholicism in mid-nineteenth century genre painting through a close analysis of St Patrick’s Day (1856), a picturesque genre painting by the Scottish artist Erskine Nicol. In doing so, it will explore why artists like Nicol, Frederic William Burton and others chose to equate Irish rural Catholicism with romantic ideas of nature and outdoor ‘primitive’ worship. This tradition of representation will be examined in the context of contemporary Catholic institutional expansion across Ireland following the removal of the legal disabilities known as the ‘penal laws’ in 1829, and the parallel emphasis on the church building as the location of worship, the sacraments, and Catholic devotional life. To date, scholars of Nicol’s oeuvre have tended to focus on Nicol’s representation of an Irish national ‘type’ or ‘character’. My reading of Nicol’s St Patrick’s Day, however, aims to extend the art historical investigation of the signification of the Irish stereotype in Victorian painting, and to examine Nicol’s painting within the interwoven frameworks of national identity and religious identity. This analysis of St Patrick’s Day is rooted in a consideration of both genre and historical context, facilitating new insights into ideas of ‘peasant’ or ‘primitive’ Catholicism as central to mid-Victorian representations of the Irish ‘national character’.","PeriodicalId":43921,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Victorian Culture","volume":"2011 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135766951","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Journal Article Samuel Smiles, Asa Briggs, and Working-Class Leeds Get access Malcolm Chase, Malcolm Chase Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Robert Poole, Robert Poole University of Central Lancashire, UK RPoole@uclan.ac.uk Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Fabrice Bensimon Fabrice Bensimon University Paris Sorbonne-Paris IV, France fabrice.bensimon@sorbonne-universite.fr Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Victorian Culture, vcad036, https://doi.org/10.1093/jvcult/vcad036 Published: 04 September 2023
{"title":"Samuel Smiles, Asa Briggs, and Working-Class Leeds","authors":"Malcolm Chase, Robert Poole, Fabrice Bensimon","doi":"10.1093/jvcult/vcad036","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jvcult/vcad036","url":null,"abstract":"Journal Article Samuel Smiles, Asa Briggs, and Working-Class Leeds Get access Malcolm Chase, Malcolm Chase Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Robert Poole, Robert Poole University of Central Lancashire, UK RPoole@uclan.ac.uk Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Fabrice Bensimon Fabrice Bensimon University Paris Sorbonne-Paris IV, France fabrice.bensimon@sorbonne-universite.fr Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Victorian Culture, vcad036, https://doi.org/10.1093/jvcult/vcad036 Published: 04 September 2023","PeriodicalId":43921,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Victorian Culture","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135451522","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This essay examines the religious contents of Elizabeth Gaskell’s 1854–1855 novel, North and South, within the context of Apocalyptic literary traditions from Antiquity, and in the literary and historical contexts accessible to Victorians. Inviting this comparison is the character Bessy Higgins, a terminally ill factory seamstress who quotes the Book of Revelation and reports prophetic dreams of some actual merit. By placing this anachronistically apocalyptic voice amid the working poor of her industrial urban setting, Gaskell effects a return to the original political function of the Apocalyptic genre: the vindication of a disenfranchised underclass. Drawing upon examples from Christian and pre-Christian Antiquity, this essay establishes the generic features of Apocalyptic literature as they pertain to its political function, and identifies key points at which Gaskell’s text aligns with them. Though Gaskell does not replicate the genre’s form in full, North and South being a novel rather than a dream-vision, she nonetheless uses the character Bessy to incorporate apocalyptic concepts, images, arguments, and rhetoric into her otherwise realistic narrative of nineteenth-century class struggle. The result, coded in layers of Biblical reference, is an indictment of the capitalist class, comparing them to the sinners who temporarily inherit the Earth in the Apocalypse of John, after the righteous have been purged from it. The final part of this essay further contextualizes Bessy Higgins within the Methodist traditions contemporary to North and South, and within Gaskell’s intersecting religious and political views.
{"title":"‘An Industrial Revelation’ – The Political Apocalyptic in Gaskell’s North and South","authors":"Joseph M Otero","doi":"10.1093/jvcult/vcad037","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jvcult/vcad037","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This essay examines the religious contents of Elizabeth Gaskell’s 1854–1855 novel, North and South, within the context of Apocalyptic literary traditions from Antiquity, and in the literary and historical contexts accessible to Victorians. Inviting this comparison is the character Bessy Higgins, a terminally ill factory seamstress who quotes the Book of Revelation and reports prophetic dreams of some actual merit. By placing this anachronistically apocalyptic voice amid the working poor of her industrial urban setting, Gaskell effects a return to the original political function of the Apocalyptic genre: the vindication of a disenfranchised underclass. Drawing upon examples from Christian and pre-Christian Antiquity, this essay establishes the generic features of Apocalyptic literature as they pertain to its political function, and identifies key points at which Gaskell’s text aligns with them. Though Gaskell does not replicate the genre’s form in full, North and South being a novel rather than a dream-vision, she nonetheless uses the character Bessy to incorporate apocalyptic concepts, images, arguments, and rhetoric into her otherwise realistic narrative of nineteenth-century class struggle. The result, coded in layers of Biblical reference, is an indictment of the capitalist class, comparing them to the sinners who temporarily inherit the Earth in the Apocalypse of John, after the righteous have been purged from it. The final part of this essay further contextualizes Bessy Higgins within the Methodist traditions contemporary to North and South, and within Gaskell’s intersecting religious and political views.","PeriodicalId":43921,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Victorian Culture","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45169048","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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