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Victorian Literature, Culture, and Power, "The 'Woman…
Victorian Literature, Culture, and Power
Sexuality
Oscar Wilde
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
One of the original queer classics. The novel follows a young man named Dorian who is known to be extremely handsome. Upon seeing his beautiful portrait, he makes a deal with the Devil to never age. The portrait ages instead of him and what follows is a novel that is full of sin, including queerness.
Comes out as gay and is eventually tried for being gay. Found guilty, sentenced to 2 years hard labor. Goes to Paris and for some reason gets back together with the man who testified against him in court.
Sodomy vs Homosexuality
Sodomy (sodomite to describe a person) is a lifestyle. It's a choice. Homosexuality is not a choice since it is medical.
"Writing Gone Wilde" by Ed Cohen
The essay by Cohen details the homoerotic subtext within Wilde's works. There is a (morbid) fascination with him in Victorian England due to being a famous playwright and being tried as homosexual.
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The History of Sexuality, Volume One by Michael Foucault
A novel by Foucault on the, well, history of sexuality. He makes a point to remind the reader that the bourgeoisie were the ones who began restricting sexuality to a confined space. That also included demonizing and repressing anything outside of monogamous heteronormativity.
Culture and Anarchy by Matthew Arnold
Sexual deviancy has been around for a long time and was normal. Puritans are essentially the people who said no.
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Empire
She by H. Rider Haggard
An adventure novel that follows the journey of conquering an ancient woman named Ayesha. It's extremely misogynistic and racist, containing plenty of Orientalism and reasons why to go against New Woman feminism.
Ayesha
"Daughters of Decadence: the New Woman in the Victorian fin de siècle" by Greg Buzwell
Buzwell wrote an article that centers on the role of the New Woman figure at the end of the 19th century. Essentially, the New Woman evolves into a femme fatale (fatal woman) figure who strives for power and brings the downfall of man.
Ayesha represents racialized anxieties as well as anxieties about the New Woman. She desires to take over England and then begin a new era of the Empire.
"Empire and National Identity"
The essay essentially details how the Empire achieved a sense of nationalism through the 19th century. Nationalist movements were on the rise all over Europe as well as the colonies and Britain needed to combat this.
"Empire" by Nathan Hensley
An essay by Hensley that asks about the Empire. What is the struggle of defining Empire? How do we define Empire? Is an Empire justified and what are these justifications?
"Indian Ink" by Susan Meyer
An essay by Meyer that details the creation of Jane Eyre during a time where India was being colonized by Britain. Meyer specifically chooses Jane Eyre because Brönte displays anti-imperialist sentiment in the novel but it's through the lens of racism and orientalism. She also attributes the aristocratic class with colonialism (see Bertha and Rochester).
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"The White Man's Burden" by Rudyard Kipling
a poem written to America, urging them to colonize the Philippines.
"'The sun and moon were made to give them light'" by Cannon Schmitt
This essay by Schmitt essentially analyzes the present of Empire within the English. Some authors, like Dickens, serve as apologists for the Empire. Schmitt also brings up the idea of denial of coevalness.
Denial of Coevalness
This is the idea that England (and Europe as a whole) is a world separate from the rest of the non-White Western world. It assumed that anything non-White is stuck in the past and exists in an ancient time period before industrialization.
Ayesha's civilization represents this denial of coevalness. They are described as being "backwards" because foreign lands have a matriarchy instead of a patriarchy. They are foreign and non-White, therefore making them "ancient."
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Gender
"Everywhere and Nowhere" by Carolyn Denver
An essay by Denver which focuses on the Victorians' obsession with sex. It was the "open secret," everywhere and nowhere. Everyone knew about it. No one talked about it. Also relates to sexuality.
"The 'Woman Question'"
Essays by Sarah Stickney Ellis and John Ruskin that talk about the 'New Woman,' a Victorian female figure who was defying the set gender norms of the time. The general debate is centered on the contribution of women and their ability to wield any sort of power.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brönte
The novel follows a young orphan girl named Jane Eyre. She navigates her way through life as a woman and as someone who is born of a lower class. Jane falls in love and eventually marries Rochester, who has a secret wife locked up in his attic (Bertha).
Desire and Domestic Fiction by Nancy Armstrong
An essay by Nancy Armstrong that breaks down the concept of domestic fiction which is a type of fiction aimed towards women that takes place in the domestic sphere. Often, domestic fiction features a female protagonist and delivers a new sense of political power. The female protagonist is seen as inherently apolitical, allowing a writer to preach their politics through the protagonist without it appearing preachy.
"The Women of England" by Sarah Stickney Ellis"
An essay by Ellis. She introduces the idea of the domestic sphere.
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Past and Present by Thomas Carlyle
A book by Carlyle. He uses the framework of medieval history (because the Victorians were obsessed with medieval history) to criticize 19th century Britain. It poses the debate of feudal England vs. industrial England.
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
A novel about class, the book follows Margaret Hale as she moves to an unnamed industrial town (it's Manchester but we can't say it is). She witnesses the strikes and urbanization of the North even though she comes from the South which is more agrarian. Eventually, Margaret meets, falls in love with, and marries John Thornton.
"The Boundaries of Social Intercourse" by James Eli Adams
The essay by Adams tackles the topic of class in Victorian literature. The sudden prominence of class is attributed to industrialization, particularly in the North where factories are built by the river due to rivers being a source of power. Class is determined via etiquette among people since classes were beginning to merge more and it was harder to tell which class someone was.
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Bourgeoise Socialism
Margaret proposes the idea of bourgeoise socialism (not directly). Basically, it's socialism but it specifically benefits the bourgeoisie.
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"Of Queen's Gardens" by John Ruskin
An essay by Ruskin. Ruskin talks about the duties of women in the domestic sphere while also bringing up the space men occupy: the public sphere.
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