115 research outputs found
Allegory and animals in Olive Schreinerâs Undine : A Queer Little Child (1929)
Written and abandoned in the 1870s, and published posthumously in 1929, Undine: A Queer Little Child has remained on the margins of Olive Schreiner (1855-1920) studies, repeatedly dismissed as a juvenile and poor antecedent to The Story of An African Farm (1883), or deemed valuable primarily for its autobiographical content. This article redresses these schematic readings by analysing how Schreiner draws on allegorical forms in order to explore aspects of her burgeoning radicalism. Focusing on one of the main allegorical thrusts of the novel, provided by the zoomorphic and anthropomorphic animal characters that descend from mythical, fairytale, and Ancient Greek philosophical origins, it investigates how the protagonistâs metaphorically significant associations with animals relate to freethinking, feminist, and anti-imperialist ideas introduced by the novel. Undine thus undermines dominant nineteenth-century models of the âprimitiveâ human or animal as less evolutionarily developed and without political platform, which can be seen to be a liberating move when the novel is read in dialogue with Jacques Derridaâs lectures on animals, and with other recent work in postcolonial ecocriticism
The Victorian Newsletter (Spring 1990)
The Victorian Newsletter is sponsored for the Victorian Group of Modern Language Association by the Western Kentucky University and is published twice annually.Pensée Sauvage at the MLA: Victorian Cultural Imperialism Then and Now / Patrick Brantlinger -- The Power of the Word: Scientific Nomenclature and the Spread of Empire / Harriet Ritvo -- The Anti-Comedy of The Trumpet Major / Richard Nemesvari -- Behind "Golden Barriers": Framing and Taming the Blessed Damozel / Andrew Leng -- Scenes of Marital Life: The Middle March of Extratextual Reading / Monica L. Feinberg -- "The Coronation of the Whirlwind": The Victorian Poetics of Indeterminacy / Lawrence J. Starzyk -- The Dover Switch, Or the New Sexism at "Dover Beach" / Eugene R. August -- Books Receive
âSavage times come againâ : Morel, Wells, and the African Soldier, c.1885-1920
The African soldier trained in western combat was a figure of fear and revulsion in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. My article examines representations of African soldiers in nonfictional writings by E.D. Morel about the Congo Free State (1885-1908), the same authorâs reportage on African troops in post-First World War Germany, and H.G. Wellsâs speculative fiction When the Sleeper Wakes (1899, 1910). In each text racist and anti-colonialist discourses converge in representing the African soldier as the henchman of corrupt imperialism. His alleged propensity for taboo crimes of cannibalism and rape are conceived as threats to white safety and indeed supremacy. By tracing Wellsâs connections to the Congo reform campaign and situating his novel between two phases of Morelâs writing career, I interpret When the Sleeper Wakes as neither simply a reflection of past events in Africa or as a prediction of future ones in Europe. It is rather a transcultural text which reveals the impact of European culture upon the âCongo atrocitiesâ, and the inscription of this controversy upon European popular cultural forms and social debates
The Victorian Newsletter (Spring 1972)
The Victorian Newsletter is edited for the English X Group of the Modern Language Association by William E. Buckler, New York University, Washington Square, New York, N.Y. 10003Mrs. Gamp as the Great Mother: A Dickensian Use of the Archetype / Veronica M. S. Kennedy -- Rossetti's Changing Style: The Revisions of "My Sister's Sleep" / Herbert Sussman -- The Sketch of the Three Masks in Romola / W. J. Sullivan -- Tory-Radicalism and "The Two Nations" in Disraeli's Sybil / Patrick Brantlinger -- Two Notes on Religion in David Copperfield / E. Pearlman -- In Memoriam and The Excursion: A Matter of Comparison / Stuart F. C. Niermeier -- Past or Future Mindscapes: Pictures in Jane Eyre / M. B. McLaughlin -- The Midsummer Eves of Shakespeare and Christina Rossetti / Warren Herendeen -- A Victorian "Modest Proposal" / Charles T. Dougherty -- Recent Publications: A Selected List / Arthur F. Minerof -- English X New
Reading âFundamental British Valuesâ Through Childrenâs Gothic: Imperialism, History, Pedagogy
This paper reads the U.K. Governmentâs âfundamental British valuesâ project alongside two childrenâs Gothic novels, Coram Boy (2000) by Jamila Gavin and City of Ghosts (2009) by Bali Rai. In 2011 the U.K. Government outlined what it described as âfundamental British valuesâ (FBV), making it a requirement for U.K. schools to promote these values. Many critics have shown that the root of FBV lies in Islamophobia and imperialist nostalgia and suggested that the promotion of âBritishâ values in school will exclude minority groups already under siege from racist elements in contemporary Britain. Other critics argue that the promotion of FBV reduces opportunities to explore issues of belonging, belief, and nationhood in the classroom. This article argues that the Gothic fictions of Jamila Gavin and Bali Rai offer a space in which to critically examine British history (and so, its values) in a way that is acutely relevant to these education contexts. Coram Boy and City of Ghosts use the Gothic to interrogate aspects of British history elided by the FBV project. That is, they point to Britainâs imperial and colonial history and offer a rejoinder to the Governmentâs insistence that âBritish Valuesâ equate to democracy, respect for the rule of law and mutual respect and tolerance of those from different faiths and religions. Furthermore, Gavinâs and Raiâs use of the Gothic creates a space in which the ambiguities and contradictions inherent in FBV can be explored. However, their âgothicizedâ histories of Britain do not render the idea of shared values invalid. The diversity and interconnectedness of the characters offer an alternative version of identity to the patronising and arrogant FBV project, which is aimed at promoting a national identity based on sameness and assimilation. Rai and Gavin look to Britainâs past through the lens of the Gothic not only to refute nationalism and racism, but also to offer a productive alternative that gestures towards a more cosmopolitan vision of identity
From Romantic Gothic to Victorian Medievalism: 1817 and 1877
"The Cambridge History of the Gothic was conceived in 2015, when Linda Bree, then Editorial Director at Cambridge University Press, first suggested the idea to us
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