Interactive blog class Nov 11

Sonia provided the article in the previous post concerning further journals that unlock a little more about the family at the heart of the Victorian period.  I'd like for the rest of you to do the following:

EITHER
1) come up with another relevant Victorian text that relates to the Isabella Robinson story or the ideas we discussed in class about constructions of the domestic, particularly as it pertains to women and children and the family.  You can send this to me and I will post it.

OR
2) Select a passage from Kate Summerscale's biography that we did not discuss in class (identify it by pg. no and opening phrase) and then just say something brief about it in terms of your appreciation of the text as a whole.  You don't have to write much: a few sentences will do.

OR:
3) Say something about the Telegraph article on Abdul Karim and Victoria (as their story relates to diaries and/or constructions of self)

BUT: feel free to engage with each other (however briefly).

RESPONSES

from KAREN:

Passages from Mrs. Robinson’s Disgrace (Bold Intentional)

“Like the economist and philosopher Herbert Spencer, who described his memoirs as a ‘natural history of self,’ she (Isabella) was charting her personal evolution. By writing and reading her journal, Isabella hoped to understand her alienated, conflicting self from the outside in, to get inside her own head and under her own skin.” Herbert Spencer – p. 36

 “In her journal’s pages ‘fact and fiction were recklessly jumbled together.’” George Combe – p. 133

“Journals are proverbially untrue.” And “Of all the written life stories that fascinated the Victorians – biographies, autobiographies, memoirs, journals of health and travel and politics – the personal diary was the most subjective and raw, the most revealing of the problems of writing and reading about the self.” Dr. Robert Phillimore – p. 147, 148

 “If masturbation was a sexual communion with the self, diary-writing was an emotional communion of the same kind. Both required a person to imaginatively divide, to become the subject and the object of a story.” E.J. Tilt, J.H. Bennet, and M.D.T. Bienville – p. 162

The diary…”dissolved the distinction between memory and the imagination.” Catherine Crowe – p. 182

 “A broken marriage always generated incompatible narratives, just as a diary always created a partial story.” Divorce court – p. 203

 “…the diary’s prime purpose was not to document her past but to delight her present.” Cockburn – p. 206

 “The reader of a diary could feel the naughty pleasure of scanning pages not meant for her eyes; or accept the role of the trusted friend for whom the narrator longed.” The Athenaeum – p. 152

 “Mr. Nightingale describes the diary as his ‘only comfort,’ but it has become a symptom of his sickness, even a cause. When it is stolen and read by others, the journal betrays him: instead of helping him to look into himself, it enables others to read him; instead of cleansing him of his sin, it delivers him up for punishment. Its passivity is an illusion. At the end of the play Mr. Nightingale is given the advice: ‘Burn that book, and be happy!’” In Mr. Nightingale’s Diary, Dickens  – p.154

 “When Edward Lane first read the diary, this entry in particular drew his anger and scorn: ‘The address to the Reader!’ he wrote to Combe. ‘Who is the Reader?...” Edward Lane – p.226

I have included multiple passages as a partial explanation as to the purpose of the Diary both in private (the Diarist) and in public (the Reader) and to begin to develop an understanding of how both parties approach this type of work. What affect does the possibility of being read by another have on the process of writing? Is it the self or self-consciousness that is a driving force or is it both? Summerscale provides a tremendous amount of information intertwined throughout the biography that not only helps the reader to understand, but to continually question Isabella Robinson and the contents of her diary (such as they are – piecemeal from historical records). As well, the historical context presented on the people who were both intimate and not, the culture and society, the science, the arts, the view of sexuality, gender differences, and the legal system also affect the reader’s interpretation of the Diary, as well as the biography in which the diary is couched, and adds to the complexity of interpretation. The reader is presented not only with Isabella’s self-analysis and self-judgment, but also that of the society in which she lives. This multi-faceted and broader view helps to identify the difficulty in reading the diary, in distinguishing truth from fiction, memory and imagination, subjectivity and objectivity for both the writer and the reader.  I especially liked Edward Lane’s exclamation near the end of the text – Who is the Reader? as it asks the question: What is the relationship between the text and the reader; what is the purpose of the genre of diary writing and is there or is there not an audience – real or imagined? Is there truth or is there fiction or both? Summerscale does not answer these questions and perhaps she doesn’t have to. She does open the door to looking more closely at the role of the reader and the diary, as well as the role of the reader of the biography, the autobiography and the memoir – It is the accumulation of activity, of voices, of ideas, of actions, of beliefs, perspectives, and opinions throughout the work that brings to the forefront the question of interpretation – of knowing the answer of what is right and wrong, real and imaginary and what are the implications in how we read a text. In many ways it is a reflection not only of the evolution of self, but the evolution of the world that continues to change, to disagree, agree, believe and not believe, love, hate, feel shame, sorrow, ecstasy, and deepest depression, etc. etc. 

from NANCY:

From Mrs. Robinson's Disgrace:

Page 73 -- the section about Darwin's visit to Moor Park:

"He was to cite the little fir trees in the third chapter of The origin of the Species as an example of the precariousness and violence of the natural world, how the 'fight goes on.' When examined closely, the pastoral idyll yielded scenes teeming with creative and destructive forces, unresting appetite and strife."

I believe that Summerscale includes this description of Darwin so that we compare Isabella's daring record of female desire to his revolutionary work in the sciences. George Drysdale and Isabella Robinson both, also, explore radical new terrain. Darwin, George, and Isabella all suffer from "nervous conditions" which, to me, is a manifestation of the anxiety inherent in pursuing "unacceptable" paths of interest.

from ANNA:

“Isabella’s dreams, too, were driven by erotic yearnings; and they seemed, in turn, to fire her literary ambitions, waking her in the morning with the urge to set it all down on paper. Her craving for physical contact spilled over into a wish to write. ‘Strange romantic dream at dawn till I rose,’ Isabella wrote. ‘I have often the plot and groundwork of a novel in my mind during sleep, with names, scenes, and all perfect, yet quite unconnected with aught that has occurred to myself, and I long for the pen of a ready writer to note all down at the time.’”- p.58

This passage touches on two issues that we discussed in class: first, Summerscale’s grafting of her own reading onto the actual words of the diary, and secondly offering one explanation of why Isabella wrote all of her experiences and/or fantasies down on paper. Isabella’s own words here promote the idea that she could have written down a dream in the guise of reality, and Summerscale views even the act of writing as a cry for physical contact.

from BRANDI:

was watching the end of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and I began to think about memory and the destruction of memory (either desired or not). For those who may have not seen the film it is about technology which can erase particular memories or all the memories about a person from the mind. In the film it is shown as ultimately counterproductive, that even bad memories have their purpose if for no other reason than to keep a person from making a mistake twice. But the film also had me thinking about the idealization of memories, how one might consciously or unconsciously remember certain things about a person or period of time which might be more like viewing the past with "rainbow colored" lenses.

Isabella's issue was that she threatened the rainbow view of her time period- she challenged the idealized image the Victorians (or those which wrote the histories) wished to have of themselves. The same can be said of Edward and his destroying the letters/journal entries of his mother Queen Victoria. Victoria herself was a woman who had certain desires and needs which exceeded what was considered "expected" or ideal for the image of Victorian England.

Whether true or no, the book We Two made it seem like Prince Albert was the responsible one for the Victorian purity rather than Queen Victoria. And though after his death she remained "faithful" to his memory (she laid out a set of his clothes daily and wore black long after was custom) she still had personal needs, the need for human connection, which could not be served by memory alone. Isabella needed connection - real or imagined- and the discovery was what shocked society, for there were plenty of scandals during Victoria's reign, albeit the expectations for men were certainly more lax.

I find it interesting that according to the text We Two- Victoria's reign was plagued with her strong connections to men- needing men to guide her or protect her (Lord Melbourne, Albert, John Brown, Abdul Karim) but what seemed to lead her to trouble was the predominance the men had over her decisions as Queen (even though a man was supposed to influence the woman- just not apparently if you are Queen...). What troubled both women (Isabella and the Queen) was that they were not supposed to have such a voice.

Though it was decades after Isabella Robinson's trial, the Oscar Wilde trials are further examples of the need to quell that which does not fall into the idealist image, and in in those trials as well, personal correspondence composed by Wilde was used against him to prove him guilty of "acts of gross indecency." 

BG

from SHARI:

I enjoyed reading all the comments. I found this biography interesting in format.  It reminded me of a text by Carole Maso,The Art Lover.  Maso's text is fragmented by the interjection of other texts that prompts the reader to possibly question or examine cultural and societal constructions of the time.  I found the construction of this biography interesting in light of other biographies and life-writings we have read. I think from the very beginning Summerscale delineates the construction of the biography by interjecting commentary and then using other texts to strengthen her portrayal of the larger cultural constraints of society on individual lives of the time.  Interjecting statements of her own, we the readers know that it is not simply a historical recording of the time or a glimpse into the secret desires of a woman from that time.  It is also Summerscale's interpretation of a society in which she did not take part in. It is her interpretation that Isabella's story is representational of the majority of women from that time.  Summerscale was not shy in interjecting comments, while choosing not to comment outright on whether she felt the diary was a recording of events that actually occurred, or a desperate woman desiring to be seen, have a voice and find romance and love from imaginings.  And it is telling that she does not.  It does not matter.  It is not about Isabella per se, otherwise, we would be presented with the text of the diary.  If the diary alone was presented without the commentary, without the juxtaposition of others' biographical details like George's or historical information on phrenology, Darwin, divorce rulings, etc, the reader's experience with the text would be very different. Summerscale selected particular texts to enhance the portrayal of a rigid cultural constrained society, particularly for women and the "othered" like George, but also to portray a society that was beginning to evolve and in doing so have to begin to examine its institutions such as marriage, family, etc.  In that light it is not simply a biography or life-writing, but a writing or mapping of a society in the context of time.