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Victorian : Literature, Culture, & Power :books:, "Indian…
Victorian : Literature, Culture, & Power :books:
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"Indian Ink" 
Jane Eyre
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"Everywhere and Nowhere"
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"Desire and Domestic Fiction"
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"A Review of Southey's Colloquies"
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"Culture and Anarchy"
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The Femme Fatale
Often described as a man-eater, the Victorian era femme fatale was a woman who used her deviant sexuality to manipulate men
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Paiderastia
A mentor-mentee sexual relationship between an older man and a younger man/teenager. This relationship model was popular in Ancient Greece and Uranian poets of the Victorian era often advocated for its revitalization
Marxism
Collection of theories by Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels that coalesced to create the basics of communism
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Denial of coevalness
The Victorian tendency to percieve non-white societies as literally existing in a different time period/distant past
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Ideology
In marxism: popular beliefs intentionally used to legitimize the prestige and power of the ruling class and prevent the freedom of the working class.
Anti Imperialism
Collection of rationale behind the opposition of Empire. Included economic drawbacks, a perceived danger to white people, and to a lesser extent concern for imperialism's affect on colonized people.
Racist anti-imperialism
the idea that some Victorians opposed imperialism because they feared the negative racial aspects of non-white races could spread to the imperializers.
Industrial Novel
literature that dealt with the effects of industrialization. Typically included the suffering of the poor and depicted/critiqued popular reform movements.
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The “Speaker’s Benefit”
Foucalt describes this as the modern belief that speaking about the repression of sex reduces this repression.
Sex/Gender System
the creation of the concept of gender from biological sex, and the subsequent separation of these two genders into appropriate social roles.
Sex as the "open secret"
The concept that sex in Victorian England may not have been explicitly depicted but was generally understood to be present.
Anti Industrialization
Collection of viewpoints that believed industrialization had been a net negative for Victorian society. Included marxism and Neo-fuedalism/romantic conservatism
The New Imperialism
escalation of imperialism in the second half of the 19th century that centered on Britain exerting control over colonial areas.
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In "The Picture of Dorian Gray" Oscar Wilde explores homosexual desire through the consequences of its repression. The interruption of Basil and Dorian's paederastic coded relationship is often interpreted as the initial cause of the misfortune of the characters. Educated Victorians had gradually come to view homosexuality as an innate defect rather than something anyone could fall prey to. This concept of the natural "invert" garnered some sympathy for queer people in Victorian England. Wilde took this a step further by implying that denying men homosexual relationships could be disastrous, Dorian Gray's unconventional depiction of implicit homosexuality landed the author in hot water at his gross indecency trial.
"Writing Gone Wild" discusses the positive representation of implicit homosexuality in Dorian Gray and the growing explicit depiction of homosexuality in stories like "Teleney" that went against typical Victorian social mores.
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On its face She is a bold adventure novel. However, the themes within represent typical Victorian values. Ayesha, the novel's sexually forward "femme fatale", meets a terrible end. In addition, the denial of coevalness present with the discussion of the African tribe she rules is a tacit approval of Empire.
"The New Chivalry" is Charles Kaine-Jackson's radical call for the acceptance of homosexuality. Building on growing Victorian sympathy for the congenital invert and "reverse discourse", Kaine-Jackson surpasses even Wilde's work with his unconventional assertation that paederastic relationships are actually intellectually superior to heterosexual ones.
Traces the "fin de siécle", development of the new woman. The new woman was a character who resisted traditional ideals of womanhood and followed her own aspirations. Whether she was portrayed as simply modern or a sexually degenerate femme fatale she was a world of difference from the Victorian ideal that dominated the century.
In the first part of the essay, Foucault dispels the notion that the Victorian period can be characterized by increased sexual repression. After rejecting this "repressive hypothesis" he goes on to explain that Victorians talked about and scientifically explored sexuality, even deviant sexuality, far more than in previous eras.
Discusses both the justification of Empire and dissent from this rationale. Popular concepts like the "white man's burden" which emphasized Western responsibility to civilize non-white nations are contrasted with Marxist distaste for capitalism and John Bright's belief that imperialism was economically wasteful.
"The sun and moon were made to give them light" corrects the misassumption that'll Victorian writers promoted Empire in their novels. Charles Dicken's Dombey and Sons as well as Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness are used as examples of books that may seem affirming of Empire on the surface but actually offer substantial critiques.
This essay evaluates "ideology" in literature from a distinctly Marxist perspective. Ideology in marxism refers to the dominant rhetoric the ruling class uses to keep the working class in their place. The author discusses Marxists who believed literature can escape ideology altogether, and then Marxists who believed novels were almost entirely idealogical. He eventually discloses that his own view falls somewhere in the middle.
The foundational text of communism establishes that capitalism is both inherently flawed and certainly doomed. While discussing the upcoming rise of the proletariat Marx and Engels of the eventual creation of one class of equals. It also states that all historical development is a consequence of class struggle.
This vaguely utopian work argues that Victorian England must emphasize not rigid morality, but freedom of thought and brotherhood. Arnold critiques the upper class as out of touch and the middle class as materialistic. He argues that the "populace" lower class has the most opportunity for social improvement.
In "The Great Towns" Engels argues that the industrial revolution has made London deeply amoral. Visceral descriptions of the filthy living conditions and isolation of the working class who live in them are used to support the anti capitalist views that will eventually mature in Engel's manifesto.
Carlyle's work claims that industrialization has caused a rotting of the human spirit. He rails against the idolization of the wealthy, who he sees as greedy and willing to let the poor suffer. He argues that unrestrained capitalism is bad for humanity. Instead of socialism, he believes in "neo feudalism"- the poor must be shepherded by their betters for their own good.
"Indian Ink" expands on the critique of imperialism present in Jane Eyre. Instead of opposing imperialism based on altruistic concern for oppressed non-white people the disapproval of Empire discussed is based on the idea that negative racial aspects are contagious.
Reflects on the new social markers and values associated with the rise of the middle class. Discusses the valorization of self determination and the shifting Victorian view of manufactures as novels became primarily middle class fare.
North and South features a Southern preacher's daughter's new life in the industrial North. The book ends with Margaret financially supporting her new husband, and Margaret has semi progressive critiques of the treatment of the working class. However, Margaret's critiques stop short of socialism or union support.
Thomas Babington Macaulay critiques the "romantic conservatism" of Robert Southey. Macaulay utilizes facts regarding the material improvement of humankind brought about by industrialization to counter the idealistic imagining of the preindustrial past used in Southey's work.
Havelock Ellis uses the congenital invert hypothesis to frame his study of Victorian homosexuals. His opposition to criminal prosecution for "inverts" was somewhat radical. However, he still frames inversion as a negative mental disorder and stops short from the acclaim uranian poets like Kaine-Jackson and Wilde gave to homosexual relationships.
Kipling's well-known poem applauds colonization as the saving grace for non-white civilizations. Scientific racism and a denial of coevalness are used to portray non-white people as fundamentally inferior. He frames Empire as a thankless duty white people have to improve colonized societies by ridding them of "primitive" cultural practices and bringing them into the modern epoch.
The essay explains the popularization of Empire being seen as a noble calling Britain had to improve the non-white world "Empire and National Identity" summarizes the populaces reaction to Britain'simperialist fervor as feeding into latent ideas about British superiority as well as "scientific" theories about modernization.
Explains the "paradox" of the Victorian marriage plot. Marriage plot novels were extraordinarily popular during the period and showcased Victorian fascination with sexuality. Sexual desire is expressed primarily through romance and the pursuit of domesticity. Although lustful desires are rarely acted on outright they are nonetheless present implicitly within the literature pointing toward a Victorian willingness to discuss the proper expression of these desires.
A marriage plot novel that breaks conventions by featuring a challenge to social norms through Jane and Rochester's cross class relationship and a challenge to morality around women through Jane's fundamental trait of independence. However, Jane's unwillingness to live in sin with Rochester, and eventual conversion into an "angel of the house" as she is both wife and caretaker to Rochester by the end of the novel, are essentially affirmations of important Victorian conventions of marriage and wifedom. The acknowledgment of oppression faced by colonized people and coinciding racism is another set of mixed progressive and typical views inherent to the novel.
Explored the continuity and changes in perception of the role of women during Victoria's rule. This essay establishes that although women were generally considered to be substandard to men, their place in society was starting to be questioned in literature written by both women and men. The major evidence for this includes Queen Victoria's support of education and simultaneous disdain for suffrage as well as the enduring prevalence of separate spheres idealogy.
Discusses the creation of a new form of political power in the domestic novel. By casting women as house bound and apolitical Victorian authors were able to use them as vessels for social critique without their books being viewed as overtly political. Represents a mix of traditional and revolutionary ideas because women's place in the home is affirmed while other traditional values are questioned.