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“Victorian Literature, Culture, and Power” - Coggle Diagram
“Victorian Literature, Culture, and Power”
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Domestic Fiction (La vie Domestique)
The domestic fiction appeared in the 1800s. At the time, these stories were popular and were mostly focused on domesticity, love and romance. This particular type of fiction soon became political by seeming apolitical. The events depicted in these domestic fictions were metaphors for things happening in the public, political world. It was a way to discuss and somehow criticize the aristocratic power structure without challenging the status quo.
Using women in domestic fictions was a choice made in order to keep the stories apolitical since women were considered far from the public and political life.
Middle Class Values (Marty)
During the Victorian Era, there was a power shift from the aristocracy to the middle class. To be able to justify morally why they deserved the power instead of the aristocracy, they started pushing new values and ideals. These middle-class values were not about external qualities but rather internal and other qualities of the mind.
Jane Eyre is the embodiment of these middle class values. She is emotionally intelligent and opinionated. She is also bold and hardworking. Her character is symbolic of the middle class rejecting the aristocracy that is filed with vices and conformist.
Separate Sphere (Battle of the Sexes)
During the Victorian Era, the two genders were considered "separate but equal. Men were more acceptable in public while women were expected to stay home and take care of the household. The home was a haven mediating with the horrors of the industrial world. Men were the sword and women were
the shield.
This is a bourgeois idea. The Men's sphere is the outside world (capitalism) and the women's sphere is the house (private setting and they are supposed to set an example for the husband and chiildren). The house is a safe space that should not be corrupted
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
Vertical to Horizontal Class Alliance
This kind of system existed because of the concepts of "bounds of reciprocal obligation" or "nobles oblige". The persons at the top of the power structure were supposed to care for all of their subordinates. With industrialization, this changes drastically : people stopped identifying vertically with the people in they realms but horizontally.
Another consequence of that sudden 'social mobility was that for the first time people were meeting new people and it became harder to directly identify people's social class. Before the Victorian Era, it was very difficult to move higher on the social ladder. New "Etiquette Rules' were one of the way people from the old aristocracy could recognize each other.
Bourgeois Socialism
This concept was invented by Karl Marx who defines it as a system that creates an illusion of wellbeing for all and tries to make any revolution less likely to happen. He sees it as a form of "benevolent capitalism" where there is no real interest in any cause. Marx believes that this type of socialism actually prevents from any meaning full change in a society. It only helps to sustain and protect the hierarchy.
At the time when Karl Marx was releasing 'The Communist Manifesto', he lived in Manchester not far from Elizabeth Gaskell. They were looking at the same city while writing.
The Era of Industrialization (The Modern Times)
The Victorian Era is the first historical era conscious of itself as a time of Great Transformations. Before the Industrial Revolution, people were either wealthy landowners or lower class people working their lands. The power started to be defined by the ownership of the means of production. It was moved away from the aristocracy and given to the middle class.
She by Rider Haggard
Imperialism (Lawrence of Arabia)
In the earlier years of the Victorian period, people in England don't really think about the Empire. It's only in 1857, that an uprising in India (Sepoi Revolution) traumatized the British public. After that, they started to rethink their relations to their colonies and started trying to bring them closer by paying way more attention to these countries. Imperialism intensifies and at the end of the era , imperialism is believed to be necessary to their empire and a dominant part of their identity.
The white man's burden is a racist ideology that places the fate of indigenous and native population between the hands of colonizers. According to this theory, colonizing other areas of the world is the burden God put on white men and they have a duty to take care of 'inferior people'.
Realism Vs Romance Debate (It's a Boy Girl Thing)
Up until the late Victorian years, novels are not gendered as we do today.It started to change around the time ‘She’ was published. Marriage plots and domestic fictions were popular, and were focused on domesticity, love and romance. During the late Victorian era, men started to think about how these books about psychology and feelings were making everybody soft and developing less interest in ‘strength’. They needed book about their primal impulses like mythology and far from that domestic reality. These novels would make British culture more ‘manly’. . It will become the “Realism vs Romance” debate: Realism focus on human relationships and Romance is the more 'masculine' stories
These novels will be often set in colonial settings since England was considered to be too advanced, too civilized and too feminine These other nations were considered primal and uncivilized so they were the perfect space to prove English masculinity and fight for the empire
The New Woman (Working Girl)
During the Vctorian Era, there was a fear about the idea of breaking gender roles and sexual anarchy. The idea of the 'New Woman' comes from that fear. The 'New Woman' was in reference of a new generation woman that were considered "untamed" and 'defiant'. This was in response to a growth in female empowerment. They were often portrayed as 'femme fatale' who use their sexuality to manipulate men. Opposed to them was 'The Old Woman' who is more traditionally feminine and "oblivious to the male gaze".
Ayesha in 'She' is the perfect example of the 'New Woman'. She is a strong and independent woman. Men respond to her and she uses her beauty and sexuality for power.
The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde
Sexual Inversion Theories (The Hot Chick)
Religion was extremely important during the Victorian Era. Sodomites were considered sinners by the Church. They were people that engaged in a forbidden activity, but it was widely accepted that others could also be tempted by it. Homosexuality was considered as a way of life. Homosexuals were people that homosexuality affected every single aspect of their life. It was also a way to help control straight people. Homosexuality could not be changed and was biological (medical authority). Doctors and scientist could pronounce on it, while sodomy was more in the domain of religion and the Church.
Sexual Inversion was an idea that attempted to explain homosexuality and transexuality. They believed that homosexuals had the soul of the other genders and that transgenders were "extreme homosexuals".
The
Reverse Discourse on Homosexuality
was used by LGBTQ individuals during the victorian period. This idea was based on the concept of sexual inversion and implied that if homosexuals could not change their nature and were born that way, there was no reason to discriminate against them.
Old Chivalry Vs New Chivalry (Groomed)
This concept came from the same idea as the Realism Vs Romance debate and arise from the desire to go back to Greco-Roman roots. The ‘Old Chivalry’ represents love between men and women. and was considered inferior because it is only based on the need to produce children. On the other side of the discourse : the ‘New Chivalry’ was love between older and younger men. There was a growing belief that heterosexuality was slowing men done and that they should be more focused on intellect than beauty. The belief was that women didn't want to be loved for their brains but boys liked being smart. Older men could encourage young men to pursue intellectual things.