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Date: 19 February 2002 00:01 -0500
From: Automatic digest processor <[log in to unmask]>
To: Recipients of VICTORIA digests <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: VICTORIA Digest - 17 Feb 2002 to 18 Feb 2002 (#2002-50)
There are 10 messages totalling 277 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Teaching Wilde
2. On Teaching Victorian Texts
3. Views of the British in Russian novels (2)
4. Last Rites Scenes
5. Travel accounts in Britain
6. Travel Writing: Americans in Britain/cucumbers, coaches, etc.
7. "Enamelling for Equality" exhibit
8. The Bronte Myth
9. Animal Magnetism
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Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2002 09:33:45 -0500
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Teaching Wilde
This is belated (I haven't been checking messages), but here it goes:
I've been teaching _Earnest_ in a number of contexts. I assigned it in a
sophomore seminar in comparative literature at Harvard (when I was a
Lecturer there some years ago); I used it to open up questions of "naming";
we then went on to read Saussure, Barthes, and Lacan.
Now, I teach it in a completely different context. I regularly assign it in
my 19th-20th century survey which is required of majors here at Fordham
University (in fact, we're starting it tomorrow, and the emails gave me a
lot of new ideas to try--so thanks). In this context, I focus on Wildean
refractions of aestheticism through irony (we read fragments from Pater the
week before). I also teach it--I can just hear a collective gasp of
horror--in my freshman writing class. There, we often perform scenes and
focus primarily on the notion of "wit." Students then write a close reading
of a chosen scene analyzing the workings of wit within it ("Bunburying" in
Act I is a clear favorite). Actually, I think my freshmen enjoy it a lot,
though enjoyment doesn't necessarily equal comprehension.
Re: cucumber sandwiches. Whenever I describe what they are to my students,
they invariably make noises of profound disgust. Where is this coming from?
Especially from a generation that grew up on peanut butter and jelly (my
turn to "ugh").
Eva Badowska
Assistant Professor of English
Fordham University
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Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2002 08:53:26 -0600
From: "Melnyk, Julie" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: On Teaching Victorian Texts
I agree with Margot's concern here, and the last time I taught Wuthering
Heights I was ready to cope with this particular kind of reception. To my
surprise the students recognized all too well Heathcliff's love of cruelty
and abuse and could not see anything attractive about him. I confess that
I was a little dismayed -- the novel was drained of much of its power by
the unalloyed repulsion they felt toward Heathcliff, deprived childhood or
not. On the other hand, I thought, if this generation has begun to grow
beyond a fascination with dark, mysterious, nasty men, perhaps the future
looks brighter than it has seemed!
Dr. Julie Melnyk
Associate Director
The Honors College
University of Missouri, Columbia
207 Lowry Hall
Columbia, MO 65211
(573) 884-0620
-----Original Message-----
From: Margot K. Louis [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Saturday, February 16, 2002 6:26 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: On Teaching Victorian Texts
Chris Willis writes, in part:
>I've found that the student who is there purely for career advancement is
>sometimes less of a problem that the student who takes a Victorian option
>because (for example) s/he read *Jane Eyre* as a teenager and fell in love
>with Mr Rochester!
It's the ones who've fallen in love with Heathcliff that disturb
me--the ones who feel that because he was badly treated as a boy it doesn't
really matter that he hangs his bride-to-be's puppy to distress her, ruins
Hindley financially and psychologically, emotionally tortures almost
everyone he meets as an adult (especially his son), physically abuses
Catherine II and blackmails her into a ghastly marriage, intellectually
abuses Hareton, etc. etc. On the other hand, the advantage of having
(some) students emotionally involved with the text in this way is that it
does make for lively discussion!
Margot K. Louis
[log in to unmask]
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2002 12:17:24 -0500
From: Suzanne Pasch <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Views of the British in Russian novels
<html><div style='background-color:'><P>Not a novel, but try Chekhov's
short story "The Daughter of Albion." Also, if I remember correctly,
Dostoevsky's "The Insulted and Humiliated" features a luckless British
emigre to Russia, Jeremy Smith.</P> <P>Suzanne Pasch, Drew University</P>
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Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2002 12:29:01 -0500
From: Suzanne Pasch <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Views of the British in Russian novels
<html><div style='background-color:'>And one more novelistic reference to
things British, although it perhaps better typifies the "Western" for
Dostoevsky, but the Crystal Palace of 1851 figures prominently in "Notes
from Underground."</div><br clear=all><hr>MSN Photos is the easiest way to
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Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2002 11:31:31 -0600
From: Christopher Keirstead <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Last Rites Scenes
Apologies if these have already been mentioned, but two poetic examples
that come to mind are Rossetti's "A Last Confession" and Browning's "The
Bishop Orders His Tomb at St. Praxed's Church." Although the bishop is
not, technically speaking, receiving last rites, the poem is a
death-bed confession, and also relevant to the issue of Victorian
perceptions of Catholicism. Like "The Bishop," "A Last Confession" is
a dramatic monologue, and in this case the implied audience is a priest,
who is hearing the murder confession of a dying Italian revolutionary.
Chris Keirstead
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Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2002 22:09:05 +0330
From: Britt-Inger Johansson <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Travel accounts in Britain
The query was for American travel accounts of Britain, but I still felt it
might be of interest that the Swedish mid 19thcentury author Fredrik Bremer
published a diary of her journeys in the Old World as it is called. Not
only Britain, but other parts of Europe as well. Among other things it has
some chapters on the World Exhibition. Like all her books it was translated
into English and was a best seller together with her diary from a trip to
the US refferred to correspondingly as the New World.
Britt-Inger Johansson, Uppsala University
[log in to unmask]
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Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2002 14:48:27 -0500
From: Corey Coates <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Travel Writing: Americans in Britain/cucumbers, coaches, etc.
--for a North American Indian perspective, George Copway's _Running
Sketches of Men and Places in England, France, Germany, Belgium, and
Scotland_ (1851) might be interesting.
--an inveterate disliker of (ugh) immature pickles, or cucumbers, I'd
rather hoped that someone would quote Dr. Johnson's wisdom (or at least
received wisdom) in Boswell's _Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides_: "It has
been a common saying of physicians in England, that a cucumber should be
well sliced, and dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out, as
good for nothing."
--on coaches, and Sally Mitchell's imagination of journeying on them, I
was struck by the thought of British emigrant Catharine Parr Traill going
to settle _The Backwoods of Canada_ (1836). Of course, she is hardly
sailing down the king's highway. She writes:
'Much as I had seen and heard of the badness of the roads in
Canada, I was not prepared for such a one as we travelled along this day:
indeed, it hardly deserved the name of a road, being little more than an
opening hewed out and through the woods, the trees being felled and drawn
aside, so as to admit a wheeled carriage passing along.
The swamps and little forest streams, that occasionally gush
across the path, are rendered passable by logs placed side by side. From
the ridgy and striped appearance of these bridges they are aptly enough
termed corduroy.
Over these abominable corduroys the vehicle jolts, jumping from
log to log, with a shock that must be endured with as good a grace as
possible. If you could bear these knocks, and pitiless thumpings and
bumpings, without wry faces, your patience and philosophy would far exceed
mine; -- sometimes I laughed because I would not cry.
Imagine you see me perched up on a seat composed of carpet-bags,
trunks, and sundry packages, in a vehicle little better than a great rough
deal box set on two wheels, the sides being merely pegged in so that more
than once I found myself in rather an awkward predicament, owing to the
said sides jumping out. In the very midst of a deep mud-hole out went the
front board, and with the shock went the teamster (driver), who looked
rather confounded at finding himself lodged just in the middle of a slough
as bad as the 'Slough of Despond.' For my part, as I could do no good, I
kept my seat, and patiently awaited the restoration to order.'
&c. On this journey, the only 'posts' are infrequent habitations, of
uncertain location.
Pardon the tangents,
Corey Coates
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Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2002 16:24:34 -0500
From: Meri-Jane Rochelson <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: "Enamelling for Equality" exhibit
I'm happy to attach below the announcement of a fascinating exhibit, for
those who will be in the UK this coming spring and summer. I saw a
slide presentation based on the objects in the collection, and they are
truly remarkable. I urge all who can to make the trip to Bedford.
Meri-Jane Rochelson
Florida International University
ENAMELLING FOR EQUALITY: ENAMELS BY ERNESTINE MILLS (1871-1959)
An exhibition 16 April - 14 July 2002 at the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery,
Castle Lane, Bedford MK40 3RP, England
Among notable women artists of the past is Ernestine Mills, a
metalworker and enameller.
Mrs Mills was taught by the leading enamellist of the 1890s, Alexander
Fisher.
During the campaign for votes for women, Ernestine became a staunch
Suffragist. Her political views and support for the Suffrage movement
is apparent in her exquisite enamels, some of which were produced as
commemorative pieces for women imprisoned for supporting the campaign.
Today her works are represented in museum collections around the world
and this exhibition will draw on these and private collections. The
exhibition is curated by Ernestine's great-niece, Irene Cockroft, who is
the leading authority on her work.
Group tours are welcome by appointment. Enamelling demonstrations and
special events will be arranged at times to be announced.
For more details contact the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery on telephone +44
(0)1234 211222, fax +44 (0)1234 327149 or E-mail: [log in to unmask]
The website is www.cecilhigginsartgallery.org
V.I. Cockroft
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2002 16:40:09 -0500
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: The Bronte Myth
Anyone thinking about "Wuthering Heights" in terms of contemporary
psychological rhetoric might want to take a look at "Heathcliff's Boundary
Issues," by Trysh Travis of SMU, in the May 11, 2001, issue of the
"Chronicle of Higher Education." She opens by considering her students'
immediate judgment that the characters are "dysfunctional" and goes on to
discuss the way their reactions have influenced her research.
Elizabeth Teare
English Department
University of Dayton
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Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2002 17:25:11 -0500
From: Andy B <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Animal Magnetism
Does anybody know the origins of the expression "animal magnetism"? I'm
reading Hardy's _Jude_, and I find in Vol I.VI.p41 Hardy using the term
"magnetism" to describe Jude's early reaction to and impression of Arabella;
this is the same scene with the pig's "parts," and I'm wondering if Hardy is
playing on a trope or delivering a "first instance of." Given his
fascination with things animal and pre-destined (ie. magnetic), it wouldn't
at all surprise me to learn that he coined the expression. Thoughts?
Andy Belyea
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End of VICTORIA Digest - 17 Feb 2002 to 18 Feb 2002 (#2002-50)
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