Final Creative Project

For my final project I have decided to focus on graphic representations of Tennyson’s “Lady of Shalott”. This poem had a powerful “aesthetic” impact on the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, and inspired many works of art (Jeffers 231). Their paintings of The Lady are not mere “illustrations”, as “good pictures never can be [illustrations]; they are always another poem” (Jeffers 232).  I aim to incorporate aspects of these Pre-Raphaelite depictions into my own work. For example: Rossetti’s representation of the poem crowds the background with swans and a crowd of on-lookers, typical of Pre-Raphaelite compositions (Jeffers 233). Early versions of Tennyson’s poem, included references to the “wild [warblings]” of dying swans, to which The Lady’s dying song is alluded (Tennyson’s Dying Swans).  The swan is an interesting figure, as in mythology, it was empowered to sing at the moment of death in order to allow a transcendence of mortality (Tennyson’s Dying Swans). I aim to create a series of depictions of The Lady, following the narrative of the poem and illuminating some of these inter-textual references.

This poem, among many things, explores concepts of art and its purpose of in society. The poem presents an artist transcending from a place of “static remove” (Jeffers, Nice Threads 55) into the world below and suggests that the consequences are severe. Tennyson creates a work with formal perfections: tetrameter lines with triple rhymes, the hypnotic rhyming of Shallot, Camelot, Lancelot, and a liquidity of sounds (Jeffers, Nice Threads 55). He draws from medieval legends, using the enticing power of these tales as a means of imaginative escape from an England less characterized by imagination or beauty, than its rush for progress. He propagates idealized chivalric codes portrayed in these legends: monogamy, loyalty and courage, but leaves unresolved the true definition of "a code of moral action" in the modern world. As medieval legends and chivalric values were propagated by popular literature, chivalry became a code of behaviour linked to the gentlemanly actions of the Victorian period. Tennyson’s work was also greatly moved by the destruction of the old Palace of Westminster in the 1834 fire, which was rebuilt in a uniquely British and Medieval style  (Tennyson’s Idylls of the King and the Chivalric Code). In the Robing Room of the palace the artist Dyce painted subjects from Malory’s Le Morte, which was the first major depiction of the Arthurian legend since the Middle Ages (Tennyson’s Idylls of the King and the Chivalric Code). Furthermore, Dyce discussed his commission with Stephens, who was the first of the Pre-Raphaelites to paint Arthurian subjects (Tennyson’s Idylls of the King and the Chivalric Code).
http://web.uvic.ca/~vicpoet/virtual-classroom/student-showcase/

Possible Sources:
Goblin Market Graphic Novel

-          Sources from the NINES assignement

-          “Tennyson’s Lady of Shalott and Pre-Raphaelite Renderings: Statement and Counter-Statement” by Thomas Jeffers, in Religion and the Arts 2002

-          “Nice Treads: Tennyson’s Lady of Shalott as artist” by Thomas Jeffers, in The Yale Review 2001

"The White Man's Burden"- satire or a chilling reflection of Victorian ethnocentric views?

Kipling played a large role in romanticizing British imperialism (Bradshaw). In fact, the legend of the British Empire has little to do with the realities of imperialism, but authors such as Kipling blurred concepts of patriotic duty and Christian salvation into the role of the imperialist. Kipling’s poem was originally written for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, but the context of the poem was later altered in order to reflect the subject of American colonization of the Philippines (Wikipedia).  The poem is rhetorically constructed as a command, which calls upon white men to colonize and rule native peoples for their own benefit (Wikipedia). Kipling employs anaphora, repeating the phrase “take up the white man’s burden,” in order to echo Christian hymns (“take up the cross”) and the Declaration of Independence. The interweaving of Christian themes and patriotic duty were aimed to delude and force the “best sons of England” (as quoted in Bradshaw) into imperialist service.

Kipling also emphasizes simple dichotomy between the dominator and the dominated, white and non-white in his poem (Bradshaw). The poem begins by describing the colonized peoples as “new-caught, sullen peoples, half devil and half child” (Line 7-8 Kipling). These descriptions create tension by directly contrasting to the title of the poem “The White Man’s Burden”:  white versus devil, and man versus child.  However, scholars have argued that dichotomy was not the distinctive drive behind imperialist fantasies, and that these fantasies rather entertained notions of hybridity (Bradshaw). The imperialist wished to be treated as both god and brother, to be worshiped as a ‘savoir’ and embraced as kin (Bradshaw).

Within historical context, Kipling’s poem makes clear the prevalent attitudes of the Victorian period that allowed colonialism to proceed. Many honestly believed that it was the duty of the civilized west to free the native peoples of their ignorant bondage. Moreover, the push of Christian missionaries emphasized the inherent duty of the west to lead these people “from bondage [in the] Egyptian night” (Line 18-19 Kipling). However, some have suggested that Kipling may have written “the White Man’s Burden” as a satire in order to undermine the foundations of imperialist fantasy (Wikipedia). Indeed, Kipling’s history of satirical writing, irony and scepticism, do seem to support the notion that Kipling perhaps constructed this poem as a parody of imperialist attitudes (Wikipedia). However, Kipling was also infamous for his radical imperialistic notions and his distorted colonialist views, which suggest that this poem was composed in earnest. Perhaps this poem is, in fact, a chilling and accurate representation of the ethnocentric views held by imperialists during the Victorian period.

Works Cited:

Bradshaw, Leah. “Gods and Brothers.” Review of Politics 65.3 (2003): 468—471. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 7 Nov. 2010.