From Queen Anne to Queen Victoria. Readings in 18th and 19th century British literature and culture. Volume 7
From Queen Anne to Queen Victoria. Readings in 18th and 19th century British literature and culture. Volume 7
Contributor(s): Grażyna Bystydzieńska (Editor), Emma Harris (Editor)
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, Philology, History of Art, British Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Queen Anne; Queen Victoria; British literature; British culture; 18th century; 19th century
Summary/Abstract: The present, seventh, volume of the series "From Queen Anne to Queen Victoria" offers profitable re-visitations of old themes, as well as explorations of new themes and problems. The volume focuses on the literature, culture, and political and social history of Britain in a period when the structures of industrial modernity were being created, and examines Britain’s imprint on the global cultural heritage, including class, gender and race-based hierarchies that persist in varying degrees into the present.
Series: From Queen Anne to Queen Victoria
- E-ISBN-13: 978-83-235-5284-0
- Print-ISBN-13: 978-83-235-5276-5
- Page Count: 214
- Publication Year: 2021
- Language: English
From Britain’s Most Unloved Queen to the Favourite?
From Britain’s Most Unloved Queen to the Favourite?
(From Britain’s Most Unloved Queen to the Favourite?)
- Author(s):Dorota Babilas
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, Philology, History of Art, British Literature
- Page Range:11-20
- No. of Pages:10
- Keywords:Queen Anne; film; The Favourite; British monarchy
- Summary/Abstract:Compared with her eminent compatriots, Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria, Queen Anne appears to enjoy a very limited presence in popular culture. The recent Oscar-nominated film "The Favourite" (2018) directed by Yorgos Lanthimos may be perceived as an attempt to redress this situation. However, the director, known for his highly experimental earlier works, seems to be interested more in the symbolic and ironic cultural uses of the Queen, than in her real biography. The article attempts to explore the apparently sudden vindication and re-appreciation of Britain’s most unloved female monarch in the light of modern cultural issues, such as feminism and LGBT rights.
- Price: 4.50 €
The Possible Worlds of Oliphant and Eliot in "Miss Marjoribanks" and "Middlemarch"
The Possible Worlds of Oliphant and Eliot in "Miss Marjoribanks" and "Middlemarch"
(The Possible Worlds of Oliphant and Eliot in "Miss Marjoribanks" and "Middlemarch")
- Author(s):Ana Clara Birrento
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, Philology, History of Art, British Literature
- Page Range:21-29
- No. of Pages:9
- Keywords:Possible worlds; feminine; representation; cultural landscape; private; public
- Summary/Abstract:In the introduction to "Miss Marjoribanks" [1866] 1969, Q. D. Leavis stated that Margaret Oliphant was the missing link between Jane Austen and George Eliot. Lucilla Marjoribanks was, in the critic’s words, the Victorian anti-heroine, insubordinate as far as her relationship to men is concerned, with a voracious appetite, and in opposition to the feminine ideal of a fragile submissive angel. Leavis argued that the novel carries an Oliphant tone in the honesty and realism, in the acknowledgement of the lack of idealism in life, constrained by conventions and prejudices. This is an opinion, I counterargue, that is underpinned by the theory of possible worlds. It was against these conventions and prejudices that George Eliot, wrote "Middlemarch" (1871) a few years later, representing Dorothea Brooke as a young woman both rational and ardent. This article analyses the modes in which the two novelists constructed respectively in "Miss Marjoribanks" and in "Middlemarch", possible worlds for women characters, discussing the relationship between the private and the public issues of culture and society, where Lucilla and Dorothea, living in those possible worlds, try to free themselves from Blake’s “mind-forged” social manacles.
- Price: 4.50 €
Saving Face
Saving Face
(Saving Face)
- Author(s):Rebecca W. Boylan
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, Philology, History of Art, British Literature
- Page Range:31-40
- No. of Pages:10
- Keywords:Thomas Hardy; inversion; gender; class; nature; perception; image; realism
- Summary/Abstract:In Thomas Hardy’s "A Pair of Blue Eyes", nature precipitates a drama in which female ingenuity and chivalry save the life of the cliff-clutching Henry Knight. Hardy narrates this in photographic impressions of disrupted realism: while Nature’s inversion both protects and threatens to destroy, a woman’s rescue of a man momentarily promises a new regard for the woman but eventually releases a torrent of destructive secrets and lies. This article contemplates Hardy’s regard for such inversions in nature – both human and atmospheric – to reflect on the novel’s preoccupation with gender identity. Borrowing from such scholars as Jonathan Crary, J. Hillis Miller, Mary Rimmer, and Timothy Hands, it observes the nineteenth-century transformation of human and natural forces as “inversions” that bring romantic confusions. Hardy’s sympathies suggest that inversion can actually preserve the fraught truths of both natural and human experiences.
- Price: 4.50 €
“In religion all roads have their obstacles”
“In religion all roads have their obstacles”
(“In religion all roads have their obstacles”)
- Author(s):Grażyna Bystydzieńska
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, Philology, History of Art, British Literature
- Page Range:41-51
- No. of Pages:11
- Keywords:conversion; Oxford; Roman Catholic Church; Church of England; dialogue; Bildungsroman
- Summary/Abstract:Newman’s first novel "Loss and Gain. The Story of a Convert" (1848) possesses some autobiographical elements. In this article the specific character of both conversions – of Newman and of Charles Reding, the protagonist of his novel – are discussed. Both conversions were the result of a rational, intellectual endeavour, although the emotional and irrational issues were frequently decisive. Oxford as the centre of the Oxford Movement was the setting of both conversions, which in both cases meant that the converts had to leave Oxford. "Loss and Gain" is also a response to the popular and numerous anti-Catholic arguments of the time, concerning, for instance, the Real Presence, the veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the saints and their relics, celibacy of the clergy, but also to the revival of Gothic architecture and Gregorian music in the liturgy of the Church of England. The article also discusses the poetics this spiritual Bildungsroman and its dialogical structure.
- Price: 4.50 €
“I saw the Man, that saw the Man, that said he saw this wondrous Sight”
“I saw the Man, that saw the Man, that said he saw this wondrous Sight”
(“I saw the Man, that saw the Man, that said he saw this wondrous Sight”)
- Author(s):Paul Goring
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, Philology, History of Art, British Literature
- Page Range:53-63
- No. of Pages:11
- Keywords:18th-century; newspapers; printed word; mediation; spectacle
- Summary/Abstract:The idea of the newspaper as a substitute eye working in the service of the reader, reflected in 18th-century titles, was predominant for most of the first two centuries of print-newspaper history. Newspapers were there to observe, and what they observed was primarily conveyed by the power of the printed word. Word-based forms of news reporting could also be ‘visual’, and this essay aims to expose the visual aspirations apparent in the work of early news writers. It does this by considering the newspaper reporting of the 1761 coronation of George III, which was a visually lavish public occasion that formed part of the ‘spectacular politics’ of the era. Although a mass public desire to see something unmediated can still be demonstrated, the newspapers also provided a critique of traditional spectatorship, pointing to the emerging power of the press.
- Price: 4.50 €
Dickens the Vagabond and the Tradition of Nightwalking
Dickens the Vagabond and the Tradition of Nightwalking
(Dickens the Vagabond and the Tradition of Nightwalking)
- Author(s):Michael Hollington
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, Philology, History of Art, British Literature
- Page Range:65-78
- No. of Pages:14
- Keywords:Charles Dickens; nightwalking; vagabond; darkness; city
- Summary/Abstract:In the context of the history of city streets by night, this essay explores the importance of Dickens’s night walking, when he sought inspiration for his writing in the London streets and their denizens, preferably in foul and dark weather, with sordid sights on display. Passages of Dickens’s novels which reflect this fascination are subjected to in-depth analysis which in particular draws attention to the centrality of the idea of the vagabond, and demonstrates the importance for Dickens of senses other than the visual – of hearing, odour, touch and even taste.
- Price: 4.50 €
“We must marry ’em”
“We must marry ’em”
(“We must marry ’em”)
- Author(s):Sophia C. Jochem
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, Philology, History of Art, British Literature
- Page Range:79-87
- No. of Pages:9
- Keywords:Charles Dickens; marriage plot; happy ending; expectations
- Summary/Abstract:Charles Dickens’s "Dombey and Son" (1846-8) represents a key reference point for Victorian gender studies, with critics focusing on the contrast between the ‘gender offender’ Edith and what Juliet John terms normative passivity on the part of the heroine Florence. This article addresses the question of whether marriage was really a happy ending for the women in Dickens’s novels, demonstrating that despite numerous weddings and marriages, "Dombey and Son" by no means presents matrimony as a solid foundation for happy unions and success in personal relations. Along with a vivisection of the marriage plot, there is speculation on what readers are expecting from the ending of a Dickens novel and concludes that weddings in "Dombey and Son" are not even “incisive beginnings”. As exemplified by the unions of Bunsby with Mrs. MacStinger, Florence with Walter, Cornelia Blimber with Mr. Feeder, B.A., and Susan Nipper with Toots, marriage is presented as a rather dusty tradition, and often a farce, not introducing the desired or expected change for the protagonists.
- Price: 4.50 €
The “(Un)fair Play” Method in Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes Tales
The “(Un)fair Play” Method in Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes Tales
(The “(Un)fair Play” Method in Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes Tales)
- Author(s):Joanna Kokot
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, Philology, History of Art, British Literature
- Page Range:89-101
- No. of Pages:13
- Keywords:detective fiction; Arthur Conan Doyle; narration; unreliable narrator; Watson
- Summary/Abstract:It is already a commonplace that the style of reading assumed by classic detective fiction assumes the reader’s involvement in solving the puzzle, as the literary detective’s rival. This implies “the modern ‘fair play’ method”, as Dorothy Sayers calls it, consisting in supplying the reader with all the clues necessary to solve the riddle, concealing them at the same time so that their significance is not revealed too soon. However, one would seek the “fair play” method in Conan Doyle’s stories in vain. Watson, adopting the perspective of a participant of the events, reconstructs and reiterates in the process of telling his misinterpretations, omissions and blunders which he committed as a character of his stories. Hence Watson proves to be not only a naive narrator, but an unreliable one as well, making it impossible for the reader to act as a rightful rival to the detective. The article deals with the functions of this “unfair play” method.
- Price: 4.50 €
Progress and/as Utopia in James Hume Nisbet’s "The Great Secret: A Tale of To-morrow"
Progress and/as Utopia in James Hume Nisbet’s "The Great Secret: A Tale of To-morrow"
(Progress and/as Utopia in James Hume Nisbet’s "The Great Secret: A Tale of To-morrow")
- Author(s):Marta Komsta
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, Philology, History of Art, British Literature
- Page Range:103-112
- No. of Pages:10
- Keywords:utopia; dystopia; afterlife; progress; James Hume Nisbet; anarchism
- Summary/Abstract:Dedicated to “all those who, not quite satisfied with to-day, may be seeking after a happier to-morrow”, James Hume Nisbet’s "The Great Secret: A Tale of Tomorrow" (1895) stands out from the author’s predominantly adventure-oriented oeuvre as a work with a distinctly consolatory and didactic inclination, represented in the novel by the depiction of the afterlife as a utopian land of plenitude and comfort. This essay seeks thus to examine the relationship between the generic paradigm of utopia and the notion of progress, the latter contextualized in Nisbet’s novel with regard to the issues of scientific advancement and spiritual evolution. The author argues that by juxtaposing the dynamic spatio-temporal model of the post-mortem utopia with the implicitly dystopian depiction of late Victorian society, "The Great Secret" foregrounds the ideals of moral restoration and spiritual development as the foundations of a better future.
- Price: 4.50 €
Cultivating the Imagination
Cultivating the Imagination
(Cultivating the Imagination)
- Author(s):Catherine Maxwell
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, Philology, History of Art, British Literature
- Page Range:113-138
- No. of Pages:26
- Keywords:late Victorian poetry; flora; poet-botanist; Constance Naden; Laurence Binyon; Algernon Charles Swinburne; Katherine Bradley
- Summary/Abstract:The article examines a late Victorian concern about the accurate representation of flora in poetry of the period, demonstrating that poems which regard flowers and plants with studied attention are in a minority, and that poets usually use plants to serve their own interests, invoking flowers impressionistically for incidental atmospheric contribution or for symbolic or personal associations. It then goes on to explore poems by both male and female poets (principally Constance Naden, Laurence Binyon, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Katherine Bradley) that look attentively at plants and flowers, considering their interest is in the plant for the plant’s sake, and exposing ways in which the poetic self is represented in relation to the flower or plant.
- Price: 4.50 €
Reviving the Anglican Confession in the Victorian Novel
Reviving the Anglican Confession in the Victorian Novel
(Reviving the Anglican Confession in the Victorian Novel)
- Author(s):Monika Mazurek
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, Philology, History of Art, British Literature
- Page Range:139-147
- No. of Pages:9
- Keywords:Victorian literature; Tractarianism; Ritualism; Oxford Movement; confession; doctrine of reserve
- Summary/Abstract:The Tractarian movement and the subsequent Ritualist movement sought to bring the Church of England back to what they believed was its Catholic roots. The means through which they tried to accomplish that were, among others, the revival of the Catholic forms of liturgy. These activities attracted much attention, often unwelcome, from Evangelical circles, who feared all these activities were the indication of a Popish “fifth column” working in the midst of the Anglican Church. One of the most controversial revivals was that of re-introducing auricular confession. Confession was in the eyes of many Anglicans tainted by its associations with the Roman Catholic Church, and especially the confessions of women, in an intimate encounter with a man who was not their father or husband, were particularly troubling. Probably the most famous confessional scene in Victorian literature is the one described by Charlotte Brontë in "Villette" (1853). This article discusses this and other confessional scenes, but focusing on confession in the Anglican context, presenting both the novelists attacking it, such as Mrs Henry Wood or Emma Worboise, but also supporting it, such as Charlotte Mary Yonge or Christina Rossetti. It is notable that while confession was very important for Tractarian religious practice, it is mentioned relatively rarely in the works of the writers connected with this movement, or described in a rather coded way. A possible explanation could be the Tractarian doctrine of reserve, which encouraged the followers of the movement to exercise caution when speaking about subjects they considered holy, especially with an uninitiated audience, such as the potentially random readers of their novels.
- Price: 4.50 €
Dickens Writes Trauma
Dickens Writes Trauma
(Dickens Writes Trauma)
- Author(s):Magdalena Pypeć
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, Philology, History of Art, British Literature
- Page Range:149-164
- No. of Pages:16
- Keywords:Dickens; Edwin Drood; colonialism; trauma; PTSD; Ceylon under British rule
- Summary/Abstract:This article examines Dickens’s depiction of PTSD symptoms in connection with his country’s aggressive imperial actions. With a colonial other suffering from a pathological mental and emotional condition, the novel portrays colonialism as an inveterately traumatising phenomenon, the young Ceylonese’s trauma narrative being indicative of the collective race trauma afflicted on a larger community by colonial violence. Apart from portraying the traumatic inner landscape of his character, the novelist is equally engaged in offering ways of healing and recovery.
- Price: 4.50 €
1827: Real, Fictional, and Mythic Time in "The Pickwick Papers"
1827: Real, Fictional, and Mythic Time in "The Pickwick Papers"
(1827: Real, Fictional, and Mythic Time in "The Pickwick Papers")
- Author(s):Dominic Rainsford
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, Philology, History of Art, British Literature
- Page Range:165-178
- No. of Pages:14
- Keywords:time; Pickwick Papers; Dickens; personal history; public events
- Summary/Abstract:The action of "The Pickwick Papers" begins in 1827, ten years before the novel was published. Quite how seriously we should take this date is debateable. In Chapter 2, Mr Jingle claims to have been present at the deposition of the Bourbons, which leads Dickens to issue a correction (of sorts) in a footnote to the 1847 edition: “A remarkable instance of the prophetic force of Mr Jingle’s imagination; this dialogue occurring in the year 1827, and the Revolution in 1830”. So, Dickens was not exactly scrupulous in setting up the novel’s original chronology, and may have thought that being so would have been slightly absurd (a kind of Pickwickian pedantry). Nevertheless, he does eventually spot the mistake with the Bourbons, and draws attention to it. And there are reasons for thinking that, in some ways, he may have been deeply invested in 1827 as the opening year. To be precise, "Pickwick" begins in May of that year, a month that Dickens will have vividly recalled, as it was then, as a 15-year-old office boy in Gray’s Inn, that he began his white-collar career. In fact, it is by no means impossible that May 12th, 1827, the day on which Mr Pickwick delivers his epoch-making paper on ponds and ‘tittlebats’, may have been the very day (in the real world) on which young Charles began work. Taking its starting point from a range of internal and external hints, forms of evidence, and loose ends, such as these, this article anatomises the dating of "Pickwick" in terms of Dickens’s personal history; his sense of the social and political specifics of the 1820s; the amateur antiquarianism that is satirised within the novel; and its fictional placement in a literary no-man’s-land between Romanticism and the Victorian.
- Price: 4.50 €
Political Plotters or Puppets?
Political Plotters or Puppets?
(Political Plotters or Puppets?)
- Author(s):Katarzyna Strzyżowska
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, Philology, History of Art, British Literature
- Page Range:179-188
- No. of Pages:10
- Keywords:Queen Anne; Lady Marlborough; Lady Masham; court life; favourites; politicians; libels
- Summary/Abstract:Indisputably, 18th century English society was male-dominated and male-oriented. The fundamental justification for the subjection of women was found in the Bible, and allowing women to make individual decisions or hold public offices was considered irrational. However, the situation had to be re-examined when Queen Anne came to the throne and often sought other women’s advice on issues which were to change the fate of the country. Examining a number of texts by contemporary men of letters who commented extensively on current political questions, helps to formulate conclusions on whether the women closest to the throne were personally and consciously interested in shaping the political arena, or were simply manipulated by politicians who chose to exploit their female naivety and folly.
- Price: 4.50 €
The Semiotics of the Gothic Country House in Jane Austen’s "Northanger Abbey"
The Semiotics of the Gothic Country House in Jane Austen’s "Northanger Abbey"
(The Semiotics of the Gothic Country House in Jane Austen’s "Northanger Abbey")
- Author(s):Urszula Terentowicz-Fotyga
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, Philology, History of Art, British Literature
- Page Range:189-199
- No. of Pages:11
- Keywords:Jane Austen; Northanger Abbey; gothic convention; novel of manners; dialogic form
- Summary/Abstract:The article discusses the semiotics of the gothic setting in Jane Austen’s "Northanger Abbey". It argues that the novel’s dialogic form juxtaposes contrasting genres and codes constructing a multi-layered and vibrant dialogue between the realistic and the fantastic modes of the novel.
- Price: 4.50 €
Figures of Hypocrisy
Figures of Hypocrisy
(Figures of Hypocrisy)
- Author(s):Przemysław Uściński
- Language:English
- Subject(s):Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, Philology, History of Art, British Literature
- Page Range:201-214
- No. of Pages:14
- Keywords:Charles Dickens; Utilitarianism; hypocrisy; pity; poverty; metonymy; parody; allegory
- Summary/Abstract:In Charles Dickens’s "Hard Times" (1854), the discourse of facts and figures is exposed as a mask of narrow-minded utilitarianism that promotes a morality blind to anything but statistical data. Parody and multi-layered irony allow Dickens to expose such reductive logic as hypocritical, demonstrating how the novel’s villains discredit charity and pity as unsound only to replace them with a pseudo-scientific reverence for practicality. This article examines the textual devices through which Dickens exposes such hypocrisy, also by looking at the intertextual references in the novel and some earlier satirical writings about hypocrisy, which often link this vice with pity (as William Blake so frequently does), and with the response to poverty (as in the case of, for instance, Henry Fielding and Percy Bysshe Shelley). It also discusses the aesthetics of the novel in terms of its use of metonymy and allegory, which help Dickens to build a grim, fable-like narrative that challenges the reductive worship of utility and appreciates the value of kindness and compassion.
- Price: 4.50 €
