In this essay, the author analyzes the Gothic of Christina Rossetti in such poems as A Coast Nightmare, Shut Out, but also the well-known Goblin Market and the Prince's Progress. Interested in what the imagery of these poems convey, and intent on declaring Rossetti as a prominent example of Gothic poets, the author makes a strong case for the including of Rossetti among the great Gothics.

The last years of the twentieth century have been characterized by an increased presence of women in Hispanic poetry, who inevitably brought forth a new poetic language. Typical of this new expression are the Spaniard Ana Rossetti and the Peruvian Rocio Silva Santisteban, who give free rein to their emotions and desires in their poetic texts, which reflect love as both eroticism and joyful sexuality. In their poetry the body becomes the instrument for the fulfillment of desire and the production of erotic states. Thus, love is despised almost innocently but through the use of Kitsch as pop songs and advertising slogans, love is rehabilitated and the pleasure-death relation is seen in multiple perspectives.

What can the study of Victorian literature gain from approaching primary texts explicitly as processing, storing, and transmitting data? I suggest that, by applying tools and methodologies from German media history that are usually reserved for technical and digital media, we can illuminate how individual texts operate and better understand Victorian texts as media, which remains an underdeveloped aspect of materialist literary study. In analysing how Victorian texts depict encounters with traditional plastic art-objects, I develop new applications of Friedrich Kittler’s ideas of recursion and transposition, Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht’s method of reading for Stimmung, and the theory of cultural techniques (Kulturtechniken). I also propose new concepts to further our understanding of how encounters with art-objects function, such as the observer effect: the simultaneous perception of past and future meanings of an art-object. Close readings of Michael Field’s Sight and Song and Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s Ballads and Sonnets suggest that both volumes acknowledge encounter as a cultural technique, rather than a spontaneous, independent action by the subject. Yet they propose different roles for themselves within that technique. Michael Field’s poems purport to halt the process of recursion, but Rossetti’s demand that readers experience their own observer effects. Meanwhile, Vernon Lee’s Hauntings: Fantastic Stories and Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray demonstrate the agency of art-objects vis-à-vis the cultural technique of encounter. Lee’s stories reveal the threat to an individual subject’s production of future meanings that art-objects pose, in particular through their effects of presence. In Dorian Gray, the art-object’s own data processing circumscribes the subject’s observer effect. Each text thus evidences its operations as a medium and its complicated relationships with other media in the form of art-objects. Each processes data; recurs to art-objects, tropes, or themes and transmits future meanings thereof; and participates in the cultural technique of encounter. In so doing, these texts resisted the threats of marginalisation that faced ‘old media’ from the rise of photography and the incipient development of film at the fin de siècle.

A presente tese visa analisar um grupo específico de poemas de Dante Gabriel Rossetti (os chamados poemas de imagens), e pinturas e gravuras de sua autoria, a fim de mostrar como a ligação entre desejo físico e devoção espiritual ilustra a expressão de Rossetti como artista, e como ela ajuda a colocá-lo como uma figura de transição no sistema literário britânico. O desejo físico e a devoção espiritual são duas forças antagônicas que ocupam um espaço predominante na literatura e na imaginação vitoriana, e na obra de Rossetti temos o momento em que a Poesia Romântica Inglesa converge para o Modernismo experimental britânico. A tese deste estudo, portanto, é de que trabalhando com essas duas forças, Rossetti tornou-se um precursor do Modernismo na Grã-Bretanha. Este trabalho investiga, desse modo, como a tensão vitoriana entre devoção espiritual e desejo erótico é representada em pinturas de Rossetti, como as suas vozes poéticas lidam com estas questões, e que soluções são criadas nas obras do poeta-pintor. Para alcançar os objetivos acima, esta tese relata uma pesquisa bibliográfica sobre a interação entre poesia e pintura e uma análise, de cunho psicanalítico, de obras pictóricas e poéticas de Rossetti. O primeiro capítulo apresenta um histórico da discussão sobre a relação entre poesia e pintura e um resumo dos conceitos freudianos a serem utilizados na análise. O segundo capítulo faz uma revisão da fortuna crítica de Rossetti e dos movimentos artísticos e literários aos quais ele é associado. O terceiro capítulo analisa um grupo das “obras duplas” de Rossetti (i.e., quadros e poemas), identificando como são construídas as imagens de devoção e desejo, e como elas se inter-relacionam. A conclusão estabelece a contribuição da obra poética e pictórica de Rossetti para o desenvolvimento dos sistemas literário e artístico britânico, à luz da relação dinâmica entre os aspectos de devoção e desejo presentes na sua obra, e analisa seu papel no cenário vitoriano. Apresenta também o papel de Rossetti na transição do Romantismo ao Modernismo britânico. A tese contém também dois apêndices: a) uma cronologia de fatos relevantes da vida de Rossetti e das obras aqui estudadas, e b) as “obras duplas” analisadas neste trabalho. / This dissertation analyzes a specific group of Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s poems (the so-called picture poems) and pictures, in order to show how the connection between physical desire and spiritual devotion illustrates Rossetti’s expression as an artist, and how it helps to place him as a figure of transition in the British literary system. Physical desire and spiritual devotion are two antagonistic forces which occupy a predominant space in Victorian literature and imagination, and in Rossetti’s work we have the moment in which Romantic English Poetry melts into experimental British Modernism. The thesis of this study, therefore, is that by working with those two forces, Rossetti became a precursor of Modernism in Britain. This dissertation thus investigates how the Victorian tension between spiritual devotion and erotic desire is represented in Rossetti’s paintings and drawings, how the speakers in his poems deal with these issues, and what solutions are created in Rossetti’s works. In order to reach the objectives above, this dissertation comprises a bibliographical review of the relationship between poetry and painting, and a psychoanalytical analysis of pictorial and poetic works by Rossetti. The first chapter presents a historical account of the discussion on the relationship between poetry and painting, as well as a summary of the Freudian concepts to be used in the analysis. The second chapter reviews Rossetti’s critical fortune and presents the artistic and literary movements with which he is associated. The third chapter analyses a set of Rossetti’s double works (i.e. pictures and poems), identifying how the images of devotion and desire are built and how they interrelate within the works. The dissertation conclusion establishes the contribution of Rossetti’s poetic and pictorial works to the development of the British literary and artistic systems in light of the dynamic relationship between the aspects of devotion and desire in his work, and analyses his role in the Victorian scenario. Rossetti’s role in the development from British Romanticism to Modernism is also presented. The dissertation has two appendixes: a) a chronology of relevant events in Rossetti’s life associated with the works studied here, and b) the double works analyzed in this dissertation.

A presente tese visa analisar um grupo específico de poemas de Dante Gabriel Rossetti (os chamados poemas de imagens), e pinturas e gravuras de sua autoria, a fim de mostrar como a ligação entre desejo físico e devoção espiritual ilustra a expressão de Rossetti como artista, e como ela ajuda a colocá-lo como uma figura de transição no sistema literário britânico. O desejo físico e a devoção espiritual são duas forças antagônicas que ocupam um espaço predominante na literatura e na imaginação vitoriana, e na obra de Rossetti temos o momento em que a Poesia Romântica Inglesa converge para o Modernismo experimental britânico. A tese deste estudo, portanto, é de que trabalhando com essas duas forças, Rossetti tornou-se um precursor do Modernismo na Grã-Bretanha. Este trabalho investiga, desse modo, como a tensão vitoriana entre devoção espiritual e desejo erótico é representada em pinturas de Rossetti, como as suas vozes poéticas lidam com estas questões, e que soluções são criadas nas obras do poeta-pintor. Para alcançar os objetivos acima, esta tese relata uma pesquisa bibliográfica sobre a interação entre poesia e pintura e uma análise, de cunho psicanalítico, de obras pictóricas e poéticas de Rossetti. O primeiro capítulo apresenta um histórico da discussão sobre a relação entre poesia e pintura e um resumo dos conceitos freudianos a serem utilizados na análise. O segundo capítulo faz uma revisão da fortuna crítica de Rossetti e dos movimentos artísticos e literários aos quais ele é associado. O terceiro capítulo analisa um grupo das “obras duplas” de Rossetti (i.e., quadros e poemas), identificando como são construídas as imagens de devoção e desejo, e como elas se inter-relacionam. A conclusão estabelece a contribuição da obra poética e pictórica de Rossetti para o desenvolvimento dos sistemas literário e artístico britânico, à luz da relação dinâmica entre os aspectos de devoção e desejo presentes na sua obra, e analisa seu papel no cenário vitoriano. Apresenta também o papel de Rossetti na transição do Romantismo ao Modernismo britânico. A tese contém também dois apêndices: a) uma cronologia de fatos relevantes da vida de Rossetti e das obras aqui estudadas, e b) as “obras duplas” analisadas neste trabalho. / This dissertation analyzes a specific group of Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s poems (the so-called picture poems) and pictures, in order to show how the connection between physical desire and spiritual devotion illustrates Rossetti’s expression as an artist, and how it helps to place him as a figure of transition in the British literary system. Physical desire and spiritual devotion are two antagonistic forces which occupy a predominant space in Victorian literature and imagination, and in Rossetti’s work we have the moment in which Romantic English Poetry melts into experimental British Modernism. The thesis of this study, therefore, is that by working with those two forces, Rossetti became a precursor of Modernism in Britain. This dissertation thus investigates how the Victorian tension between spiritual devotion and erotic desire is represented in Rossetti’s paintings and drawings, how the speakers in his poems deal with these issues, and what solutions are created in Rossetti’s works. In order to reach the objectives above, this dissertation comprises a bibliographical review of the relationship between poetry and painting, and a psychoanalytical analysis of pictorial and poetic works by Rossetti. The first chapter presents a historical account of the discussion on the relationship between poetry and painting, as well as a summary of the Freudian concepts to be used in the analysis. The second chapter reviews Rossetti’s critical fortune and presents the artistic and literary movements with which he is associated. The third chapter analyses a set of Rossetti’s double works (i.e. pictures and poems), identifying how the images of devotion and desire are built and how they interrelate within the works. The dissertation conclusion establishes the contribution of Rossetti’s poetic and pictorial works to the development of the British literary and artistic systems in light of the dynamic relationship between the aspects of devotion and desire in his work, and analyses his role in the Victorian scenario. Rossetti’s role in the development from British Romanticism to Modernism is also presented. The dissertation has two appendixes: a) a chronology of relevant events in Rossetti’s life associated with the works studied here, and b) the double works analyzed in this dissertation.

In 1904, Black British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor published six songs from the oeuvre of white British poet Christina Georgina Rossetti, only a few months after reading W.E.B. Du Bois’ groundbreaking work The Souls of Black Folk (1903). This seminal book included a chapter called “Sorrow Songs” devoted to discussing slave songs. It also introduced the concept of double-consciousness to describe how Black people, see themselves through the lens of the white society. This point of view creates a sense of doubleness in their identity and recognition of self. The songs that Coleridge-Taylor composed, which he titled Six Sorrow Songs, Op. 57, address themes of love, death, and spirituality. Coleridge-Taylor grouped these art songs under the title “Sorrow Songs”—showing a connection to Du Bois’ work and its influence. This fusion of art song and slave song opens up room for examinations of cross-genre relations, which highlights complexity of meaning and textual changes when interpreted and performed—revealing a “doubledness” to the composition in this time in the composer’s life. Serge Lacasse’s (2018) model for intertextuality offers a framework for considering the cross-genre relations that emerge in this song cycle. The concepts of architextuality, transfictionality, and polytextuality from his model are particularly relevant in this cycle, as they account for inter-genre relationships, fictional elements of the story (including speakers and the setting), as well as the overall compilation of the songs, respectively. Drawing this model together with scholarship on Sorrow Songs, this thesis focuses on the emergence of “Sorrow Songs” at this pivotal moment in the composer’s life, which will enable the consideration of the intertext of Western classical and African slave songs in this composition as well as the creation of a story in this musico-literary hybrid. Context is critical to this discussion so his trips to the USA, personal experiences, the socio-political events of the time, and the encounter with the influential Black figures will be discussed to understand how this song cycle reshaped Coleridge-Taylor’s musical path. Intertextual analysis of this song cycle reveals a sense of double meaning in Six Sorrow Songs, Op. 57, where one clearly sees Du Bois’ concept at work in the life of the composer living as a Black man in a white society, in his music combining Western classical and Sorrow Song genres, in the medium he chose to write for, a singer and a pianist, and in setting spiritual/religious poetry written by a white poet to these romantic songs.

No description available.

Uppsatsens ämne berör användningen av intermedialitet för att förmedla ett narrativ i Dante Gabriel Rossettis verk Lady Lilith och Sibylla Palmifera. I uppsatsen undersöks hur Rossetti problematiserar den samtida kvinnosynen. Med intermedialitet menas användningen av två medier i samma verk, i detta fall sonett och måleri. Syftet är att undersöka hur Dante Gabriel Rossetti problematiserade den rådande tudelade synen på kvinnan som antingen ond eller god. Den intermediala teorin som används bygger på W.T.J. Mitchells teori om relationen mellan bild och text, vad dessa medier tillför varandra samt skillnaden mellan dem. Genom analyser av både text och måleri undersöks de bägge verkens ikonologi. Dispositionen består av tre avsnitt. Det första avsnittet fungerar som en bakgrund till de övriga två avsnitten. Avsnitt två och tre består av enskilda analyser av de bägge verken med tillhörande texter.  Resultatet visar att Dante Gabriel Rossetti med dessa verk problematiserar dualiteten i den samtida kvinnosynen. Genom att använda mytologiska kvinnogestalter skapar Rossetti en mer nyanserad bild av synen på kvinnan under den viktorianska epoken. Användningen av sonett och måleri tillsammans fungerar väl i Lady Lilith då verket får en fördjupad inre mening. I dubbelverket Sibylla Palmifera relaterar dock sonett och målning inte lika bra med varandra.

"'The Burden of the Image:' Jane Morris in Art and Life" examines the work and life of Pre-Raphaelite model Jane Burden Morris (1839-1914). Burden Morris, an embroiderer and wife of the arts and crafts designer William Morris (1834-96), became famous in her own lifetime as the model for a number of Pre-Raphaelite works, particularly the paintings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-82). Although she was not considered conventionally beautiful by Victorian standards, artists drew heavily upon Burden Morris’s appearance, particularly her striking features and unusual artistic dress, in order to heighten the exoticism of their works and to suggest moments outside contemporary Victorian time and place. Burden Morris’s features became synonymous with the Pre-Raphaelite ideal in female beauty and several contemporaries reflected upon the surreal experience of meeting the enigmatic woman thought only to exist in paintings. Borrowing from a material culture approach which views images as both reflective and formative of identity, this work considers the relationship between Jane Burden Morris and her painted representation, and focuses in particular on the works produced through Burden Morris’s long-standing collaboration with Rossetti. Through an examination of Burden Morris’s appearance, activities, and demeanour, this dissertation considers the aspects of Burden Morris’s identity which contributed to her use in numerous Pre-Raphaelite images, and further explores the way in which these paintings may have altered how Burden Morris conceived of her own identity. “The Burden of the Image” examines three dominant modes of representing Burden Morris, including depictions of Burden Morris as medieval damsel, myth, and monster. It also considers Jane Burden Morris’s role within the broader context of aestheticism, and explores her relationship to the artistic dress movement and the aesthetic interior. / Thesis (Ph.D, Art History) -- Queen's University, 2014-03-31 13:33:52.106

The writing style of a number of authors writing in English was empirically investigated for the purpose of detecting stylistic patterns in relation to advancing age. The aim was to identify the type of stylistic markers among lexical, syntactical, phonemic, entropic, character-based, and content ones that would be most able to discriminate between early, middle, and late works of the selected authors, and the best classification or prediction algorithm most suited for this task. Two pilot studies were initially conducted. The first one concentrated on Christina Georgina Rossetti and Edgar Allan Poe from whom personal letters and poetry were selected as the genres of study, along with a limited selection of variables. Results suggested that authors and genre vary inconsistently. The second pilot study was based on Shakespeare's plays using a wider selection of variables to assess their discriminating power in relation to a past study. It was observed that the selected variables were of satisfactory predictive power, hence judged suitable for the task. Subsequently, four experiments were conducted using the variables tested in the second pilot study and personal correspondence and poetry from two additional authors, Edna St Vincent Millay and William Butler Yeats. Stepwise multiple linear regression and regression trees were selected to deal with the first two prediction experiments, and ordinal logistic regression and artificial neural networks for two classification experiments. The first experiment revealed inconsistency in accuracy of prediction and total number of variables in the final models affected by differences in authorship and genre. The second experiment revealed inconsistencies for the same factors in terms of accuracy only. The third experiment showed total number of variables in the model and error in the final model to be affected in various degrees by authorship, genre, different variable types and order in which the variables had been calculated. The last experiment had all measurements affected by the four factors. Examination of whether differences in method within each task play an important part revealed significant influences of method, authorship, and genre for the prediction problems, whereas all factors including method and various interactions dominated in the classification problems. Given the current data and methods used, as well as the results obtained, generalizable conclusions for the wider author population have been avoided.