Victorian Poetry as Cultural Critique


Book Description

The discussion of each poem attends to the complexity of the poem's utterance, its historical contexts, and its broader implications for cultural meaning.Victorian Literature and Culture Series




On Exhibit


Book Description

Why did the Victorians collect with such a vengeance and exhibit in museums? Focusing on this key nineteenth-century enterprise, Barbara J. Black illuminates British culture of the period by examining the cultural power that this collecting and exhibiting possessed. Through its museums, she argues, Victorian London constructed itself as a world city. Using the tools of cultural criticism, social history, and literary analysis, Black roots Victorian museum culture in key political events and cultural forces: British imperialism, exploration, and tourism; advances in science and changing attitudes about knowledge; the commitment to improved public taste through mass education; the growth of middle-class dominance and the resulting bourgeois fetishism and commodity culture; and the democratization of luxury engendered by the French and industrial revolutions. She covers a wide range of genres--from poetry to museum guidebooks to the triple-decker novel--and treats three London museums as case studies: Sir John Soane's house-museum, the Natural History Museum, and the exemplary South Kensington. While On Exhibit provides a fascinating analysis of Victorian society, it also reminds us how modern the Victorians were--how, in crucial ways, our culture derives from the Victorian era. Forging connections among museums, urbanism, and modernity, Black provokes us to examine cultural imperialism and the costs and advantages of cultural consensus.




Victorian Poetry


Book Description

In a work that is uniquely comprehensive and theoretically astute, Isobel Armstrong rescues Victorian poetry from its longstanding sepia image as `a moralised form of romantic verse', and unearths its often subversive critique of nineteenth-century culture and politics.




Neo-Victorian Literature and Culture


Book Description

This book provides a comprehensive reflection of the processes of canonization, (un)pleasurable consumption and the emerging predominance of topics and theoretical concerns in neo-Victorianism. The repetitions and reiterations of the Victorian in contemporary culture document an unbroken fascination with the histories, technologies and achievements, as well as the injustices and atrocities, of the nineteenth century. They also reveal that, in many ways, contemporary identities are constructed through a Victorian mirror image fabricated by the desires, imaginings and critical interests of the present. Providing analyses of current negotiations of nineteenth-century texts, discourses and traumas, this volume explores the contemporary commodification and nostalgic recreation of the past. It brings together critical perspectives of experts in the fields of Victorian literature and culture, contemporary literature, and neo-Victorianism, with contributions by leading scholars in the field including Rosario Arias, Cora Kaplan, Elizabeth Ho, Marie-Luise Kohlke and Sally Shuttleworth. Neo-Victorian Literature and Culture interrogates current fashions in neo-Victorianism and their ideological leanings, the resurrection of cultural icons, and the reasons behind our relationship with and immersion in Victorian culture.




The Discourse of Self in Victorian Poetry


Book Description

This book places Victorian poetry within the context of a radical shift over the last 150 years in the key European model for human definition and experience- from the metaphor of self to the metaphor of text. In this innovative approach Warwick Slinn examines the continuities from Hegel to Derrida in order to explain the force and challenge poetry which disrupts the assumptions of idealist lyricism. This book places Victorian poetry within the context of a radical shift over the last 150 years in the key European model for human definition and experience- from the metaphor of self to the metaphor of text. In this innovative approach Warwick Slinn examines the continuities from Hegel to Derrida in order to explain the force and challenge poetry which disrupts the assumptions of idealist lyricism.




The Poetry of Chartism


Book Description

This book explores the contribution made by Chartist poetry to the struggle for fundamental democratic rights.




The Cultural Production of Matthew Arnold


Book Description

The career of Matthew Arnold as an eminent poet and the preeminent critic of his generation constitutes a remarkable historical spectacle orchestrated by a host of powerful Victorian cultural institutions. The Cultural Production of Matthew Arnold investigates these constructions by situating Arnold’s poetry in a number of contexts that partially shaped it. Such analysis revises our understanding of the formation of the elite (and elitist) male literary-intellectual subject during the 1840s and 1850s, as Arnold attempts self-definition and strives simultaneously to move toward a position of ideological influence upon intellectual institutions that were contested sites of economic, social, and political power in his era. Antony H. Harrison reopens discussion of selected works by Arnold in order to make visible some of their crucial sociohistorical, intertextual, and political components. Only by doing so can we ultimately view the cultural work of Arnold “steadily and ... whole,” and in a fashion that actually eschews this mystifying premise of all Arnoldian inquiry which, by the early twentieth century, had become wholly naturalized in the academy as ideology.




Slow Print


Book Description

This book explores the literary culture of Britain's radical press from 1880 to 1910, a time that saw a flourishing of radical political activity as well as the emergence of a mass print industry. While Enlightenment radicals and their heirs had seen free print as an agent of revolutionary transformation, socialist, anarchist and other radicals of this later period suspected that a mass public could not exist outside the capitalist system. In response, they purposely reduced the scale of print by appealing to a small, counter-cultural audience. "Slow print," like "slow food" today, actively resisted industrial production and the commercialization of new domains of life. Drawing on under-studied periodicals and archives, this book uncovers a largely forgotten literary-political context. It looks at the extensive debate within the radical press over how to situate radical values within an evolving media ecology, debates that engaged some of the most famous writers of the era (William Morris and George Bernard Shaw), a host of lesser-known figures (theosophical socialist and birth control reformer Annie Besant, gay rights pioneer Edward Carpenter, and proto-modernist editor Alfred Orage), and countless anonymous others.




Too Much


Book Description

Lacing cultural criticism, Victorian literature, and storytelling together, "TOO MUCH spills over: with intellect, with sparkling prose, and with the brainy arguments of Vorona Cote, who posits that women are all, in some way or another, still susceptible to being called too much." (Esmé Weijun Wang) A weeping woman is a monster. So too is a fat woman, a horny woman, a woman shrieking with laughter. Women who are one or more of these things have heard, or perhaps simply intuited, that we are repugnantly excessive, that we have taken illicit liberties to feel or fuck or eat with abandon. After bellowing like a barn animal in orgasm, hoovering a plate of mashed potatoes, or spraying out spit in the heat of expostulation, we've flinched-ugh, that was so gross. I am so gross. On rare occasions, we might revel in our excess--belting out anthems with our friends over karaoke, perhaps--but in the company of less sympathetic souls, our uncertainty always returns. A woman who is Too Much is a woman who reacts to the world with ardent intensity is a woman familiar to lashes of shame and disapproval, from within as well as without. Written in the tradition of Shrill, Dead Girls, Sex Object and other frank books about the female gaze, TOO MUCH encourages women to reconsider the beauty of their excesses-emotional, physical, and spiritual. Rachel Vorona Cote braids cultural criticism, theory, and storytelling together in her exploration of how culture grinds away our bodies, souls, and sexualities, forcing us into smaller lives than we desire. An erstwhile Victorian scholar, she sees many parallels between that era's fixation on women's "hysterical" behavior and our modern policing of the same; in the space of her writing, you're as likely to encounter Jane Eyre and Lizzie Bennet as you are Britney Spears and Lana Del Rey. This book will tell the story of how women, from then and now, have learned to draw power from their reservoirs of feeling, all that makes us "Too Much."




Ink & Insight of Reading English Poetry


Book Description

Embark on a captivating journey through the world of English poetry, where diverse voices and literary traditions intertwine to create a symphony of words. From the timeless verses of British poets to the resonant voices of global contemporaries, this comprehensive guide unravels the rich tapestry of poetic expression, offering insights into the power of language to evoke emotions, explore themes, and shape our understanding of the human experience. Delve into the transformative world of British poetry, where renowned figures like Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath, Dylan Thomas, William Butler Yeats, T.S. Eliot, and Ezra Pound have left an indelible mark. Explore the innovative forms, socio-cultural engagement, and confessional nature of 20th-century poetry, as well as the enduring echoes of war poetry and the Beat Generation's rhythmic rebellion. Venture beyond Britannia's shores to discover the vibrant voices of global poets, where cultural identities, linguistic diversity, and intersectionality take center stage. Uncover the rhythmic traditions and cultural imagery of African poetry, the Asian influences on English verse, and the harmonious melodies of Caribbean rhythms. Immerse yourself in the poetic tapestry of Middle Eastern expression, South American sonnets, and the global collaborations that transcend borders and unite poets across continents. As you navigate through this literary landscape, you'll encounter a diverse array of poets and their works, each offering unique perspectives and captivating narratives. From Walt Whitman's celebration of individuality and democracy to Langston Hughes' exploration of African American identity, Emily Dickinson's enigmatic beauty, Maya Angelou's celebration of black femininity, and Allen Ginsberg's countercultural rebellion, each poem unveils a layer of human experience and invites reflection. Through insightful analyses and engaging discussions, "Ink & Insight of Reading English Poetry" guides you through the intricacies of poetic techniques, symbolism, and cultural references, empowering you to unlock the deeper meanings and emotions embedded within each verse. Whether you're a seasoned poetry aficionado or a curious newcomer, this comprehensive guide will enrich your understanding of English poetry, fostering a lifelong appreciation for its beauty, power, and enduring impact.