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Papers by Jennifer L Hargrave
Keats-Shelley Journal, 2016
At least as puzzling is the near-absence of Mary Shelley, who is the only significant figure in t... more At least as puzzling is the near-absence of Mary Shelley, who is the only significant figure in the Byron-Shelley-Keats circle not to receive a mention in a chapter title. What makes her relegation to a few pages all the more a cause of regret is that several of the very best chapters in this volume—which throughout demonstrate the very highest standards of scholarly research and intellectual enquiry—are those that evaluate the various roles gender played in the reception of classical culture in this period. A consideration of Mary Shelley’s creative engagement with Greece and Rome would have strengthened this aspect of the volume still further, while at the same time helping to fill what remains something of a blind spot in our understanding of her life and writings. Volda University College Timothy Saunders
Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, 2019
SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900, 2016
In the 2014 trailer for Netflix's Marco Polo, the words "worlds will collide" flash across the sc... more In the 2014 trailer for Netflix's Marco Polo, the words "worlds will collide" flash across the screen. 1 These words interrupt successive images of barbaric executions, sensationalized kung fu, passionate love affairs, and barren landscapes that centrally feature Marco Polo. Netflix elevates Polo from mere observer to active participant, thereby insinuating that Polo's celebrated sojourn in Asia was the catalyst for those interimperial encounters in which "worlds … collide." Rather than concentrating on Kublai Khan's thirteenth-century formation of his multicultural empire, Netflix casts a solitary European merchant as the powerful instigator of global change. This retelling of Polo's travels predictably transforms the original medieval travelogue, which John Larner describes as void of the very excitement that Netflix promises: "[A]nyone who approaches the work looking for a tale of heroic exploration is going to be badly disappointed. Nothing is more striking here than Marco's silence about the difficulties and dangers he must have faced or about the character of the journeys he made." 2 Nevertheless, Netflix's modifications are also highly conventional. As Gang Zhou notes, The Travels of Marco Polo has been subject to extensive revision and manipulation since its initial composition around 1298, so much so that "[o]ne begins to wonder if there is something in the nature of Marco Polo's book that both invites and encourages such ongoing emendation." 3 515 Jennifer L. Hargrave received her Ph.D. in English from Rice University in 2016. Her dissertation, "The Romantic Reinvention of Imperial China, 1759-1857," examines how Romantic literature shaped nineteenth-century interimperial exchanges between Britain and China.
European Romantic Review, 2016
Through an analysis of Thomas Allom and George Newenham Wright's four-volume China, in a Series o... more Through an analysis of Thomas Allom and George Newenham Wright's four-volume China, in a Series of Views, Displaying the Scenery, Architecture, and Social Habits of That Ancient Empire (1843), this essay argues that mid-nineteenth-century domestic Sinology appropriated Romantic ideology and poetry to situate China within the British Empire. While Britain's Chinese colonial acquisitions never extended beyond the infamous ceding of Hong Kong at the end of the Opium War (1839-1842), the British military victory over China provided domestic Sinologists with the latitude to admire the "exotic" locale while couching this admiration in familiar imperialist rhetoric. In so doing, domestic Sinologyboth visual and textualimaginatively surrenders the entirety of China, not just Hong Kong, to British rule. As Allom and Wright's text demonstrates, domestic Sinology often relied upon Romantic ideology and literature to achieve this imaginative acquiescence. This incongruous use of Romanticism made it complicit in Britain's imperial development in the Far East. By the 1840s, British Sinology was firmly established as a field of academic study. The first British professorships in Chinese were founded at the University of London and at King's College in 1837 and 1845, respectively. In 1847, the Royal Asiatic Society established its Hong Kong branch with preeminent Sinologist and Hong Kong governor, John Francis Davis, as its inaugural president. Early nineteenth-century Sinology emerged largely from experiential knowledge of China. British Sinology's founders consisted primarily of Canton-based missionaries, diplomats, and tradesmenmany of whom were associated with the East India Company. However, Sinological publications were not intended for the general British reader. For example, George Thomas Staunton's nearly 700-page translation of the Chinese penal code was considered necessary, if tedious, reading for British merchants in Canton. As Peter Kitson aptly notes, "Sinology was created almost entirely within the worlds of global commerce and none of its practitioners could (or did) claim simply to be promoting the disinterested pursuit of knowledge" (76). In other words, this scholarship addressed the specific transcultural needs of an expatriate community. Empirically grounded Sinology dominated Anglo-Sino discourse of the early nineteenth century. With the mid-century opening of China to foreign exchange, this mode of representation failed to satiate increasingly widespread British curiosity regarding the historically isolated country.
Eighteenth-Century Studies, 2015
This article takes up the call of scholars such as Robert Markley, David Porter, and Chi-ming Yan... more This article takes up the call of scholars such as Robert Markley, David Porter, and Chi-ming Yang to investigate the relevance of early modern Chinese linguistics, morals, and government to eighteenth-century British literature. Despite its myriad Chinese references, Eliza Haywood’s The Adventures of Eovaai remains underexplored within scholarly forays into eighteenth-century Anglo-Sino relations and their literary manifestations. Haywood demonstrates an appreciation for Chinese models of language, morality, and government—models highly reminiscent of seventeenth-century Jesuits’ laudatory accounts of the Qing Empire. By demonstrating Haywood’s engagement with Jesuit Sinology, I argue that Eovaai encapsulates a striking moment in Anglo-Sino relations that perceives China as a site of superior political knowledge to be emulated. Moreover, Haywood’s references to Chinese political rectitude are integral to her critique of British political and national character.
Nineteenth-Century Contexts, 2014
Romanticism's Victorian Afterlife Over the course of the long nineteenth century, Britain's relat... more Romanticism's Victorian Afterlife Over the course of the long nineteenth century, Britain's relationship with China deteriorated from the high aspirations of George Lord Macartney's proposed diplomatic and economic partnership during the 1792-4 British Embassy, to the ignoble treaties of Nanjing (1842), Bogue (1843), and Tianjin (1858) that established Britain's imperial leverage over Chinese affairs. The Anglo-Chinese Wars (1839-42 and 1856-60), popularly known as the Opium Wars, are usually associated with Victorian, rather than Romantic, imperial practices. The military aggression exercised during the wars, as well as the treaties that concluded each conflict, typified Britain's more hostile imperial practices of the mid-to late nineteenth century. Accordingly, the Opium Wars appear to be ideologically removed from the preceding Romantic era's more ambiguous representations of China. Romantic literature, canonical and non, vacillated between depicting China as an established autonomous empire or as a desired conquerable territory. 1 However, Romantic literature's participation in Anglo-Sino discourse extended well into the nineteenth century. Although historical documentation suggests clear moments wherein Anglo-Sino relations were decidedly altered (e.g., the 1842 ceding of Hong Kong Island to the British), the literary representation of British attitudes toward the Chinese continued to be more muddled, even in the midst of the Opium Wars. Romantic literature-fiction and non-fiction, poetry and prose-experienced a revival within Chinese discourse of the 1840s and 1850s, regardless of the texts' original investment in Anglo-Sino relations. Mid-nineteenthcentury writers appropriated myriad Romantic texts by incorporating them into new reflections on Anglo-Sino conflict and using them, albeit anachronistically, to develop new arguments regarding Britain's imperial pursuits in China. John Barrow's Travels in China (1804) undergoes such an appropriation in Thomas De Quincey's essay "The English Mail-Coach, or the Glory of Motion" (1849).
The Wordsworth Circle, 2020
It is very easy to “harden ignorance into contempt,” and to assume that whatever is unknown isnot... more It is very easy to “harden ignorance into contempt,” and to assume that whatever is unknown isnotworth knowing: but the excellent usewhichhas already been made of oriental thoughts and imagery, derived from languages of Asia more familiar to us, might encourage some extension in the range of our enquiries. Fruits of the highest culturemay be improved and varied by foreign grafts; and as our gardens have already been indebted to China for a few choice flowers, who knows but our poetry may some day lie under a similar obligation. (452–53)
Keats-Shelley Journal, 2016
At least as puzzling is the near-absence of Mary Shelley, who is the only significant figure in t... more At least as puzzling is the near-absence of Mary Shelley, who is the only significant figure in the Byron-Shelley-Keats circle not to receive a mention in a chapter title. What makes her relegation to a few pages all the more a cause of regret is that several of the very best chapters in this volume—which throughout demonstrate the very highest standards of scholarly research and intellectual enquiry—are those that evaluate the various roles gender played in the reception of classical culture in this period. A consideration of Mary Shelley’s creative engagement with Greece and Rome would have strengthened this aspect of the volume still further, while at the same time helping to fill what remains something of a blind spot in our understanding of her life and writings. Volda University College Timothy Saunders
Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, 2019
SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900, 2016
In the 2014 trailer for Netflix's Marco Polo, the words "worlds will collide" flash across the sc... more In the 2014 trailer for Netflix's Marco Polo, the words "worlds will collide" flash across the screen. 1 These words interrupt successive images of barbaric executions, sensationalized kung fu, passionate love affairs, and barren landscapes that centrally feature Marco Polo. Netflix elevates Polo from mere observer to active participant, thereby insinuating that Polo's celebrated sojourn in Asia was the catalyst for those interimperial encounters in which "worlds … collide." Rather than concentrating on Kublai Khan's thirteenth-century formation of his multicultural empire, Netflix casts a solitary European merchant as the powerful instigator of global change. This retelling of Polo's travels predictably transforms the original medieval travelogue, which John Larner describes as void of the very excitement that Netflix promises: "[A]nyone who approaches the work looking for a tale of heroic exploration is going to be badly disappointed. Nothing is more striking here than Marco's silence about the difficulties and dangers he must have faced or about the character of the journeys he made." 2 Nevertheless, Netflix's modifications are also highly conventional. As Gang Zhou notes, The Travels of Marco Polo has been subject to extensive revision and manipulation since its initial composition around 1298, so much so that "[o]ne begins to wonder if there is something in the nature of Marco Polo's book that both invites and encourages such ongoing emendation." 3 515 Jennifer L. Hargrave received her Ph.D. in English from Rice University in 2016. Her dissertation, "The Romantic Reinvention of Imperial China, 1759-1857," examines how Romantic literature shaped nineteenth-century interimperial exchanges between Britain and China.
European Romantic Review, 2016
Through an analysis of Thomas Allom and George Newenham Wright's four-volume China, in a Series o... more Through an analysis of Thomas Allom and George Newenham Wright's four-volume China, in a Series of Views, Displaying the Scenery, Architecture, and Social Habits of That Ancient Empire (1843), this essay argues that mid-nineteenth-century domestic Sinology appropriated Romantic ideology and poetry to situate China within the British Empire. While Britain's Chinese colonial acquisitions never extended beyond the infamous ceding of Hong Kong at the end of the Opium War (1839-1842), the British military victory over China provided domestic Sinologists with the latitude to admire the "exotic" locale while couching this admiration in familiar imperialist rhetoric. In so doing, domestic Sinologyboth visual and textualimaginatively surrenders the entirety of China, not just Hong Kong, to British rule. As Allom and Wright's text demonstrates, domestic Sinology often relied upon Romantic ideology and literature to achieve this imaginative acquiescence. This incongruous use of Romanticism made it complicit in Britain's imperial development in the Far East. By the 1840s, British Sinology was firmly established as a field of academic study. The first British professorships in Chinese were founded at the University of London and at King's College in 1837 and 1845, respectively. In 1847, the Royal Asiatic Society established its Hong Kong branch with preeminent Sinologist and Hong Kong governor, John Francis Davis, as its inaugural president. Early nineteenth-century Sinology emerged largely from experiential knowledge of China. British Sinology's founders consisted primarily of Canton-based missionaries, diplomats, and tradesmenmany of whom were associated with the East India Company. However, Sinological publications were not intended for the general British reader. For example, George Thomas Staunton's nearly 700-page translation of the Chinese penal code was considered necessary, if tedious, reading for British merchants in Canton. As Peter Kitson aptly notes, "Sinology was created almost entirely within the worlds of global commerce and none of its practitioners could (or did) claim simply to be promoting the disinterested pursuit of knowledge" (76). In other words, this scholarship addressed the specific transcultural needs of an expatriate community. Empirically grounded Sinology dominated Anglo-Sino discourse of the early nineteenth century. With the mid-century opening of China to foreign exchange, this mode of representation failed to satiate increasingly widespread British curiosity regarding the historically isolated country.
Eighteenth-Century Studies, 2015
This article takes up the call of scholars such as Robert Markley, David Porter, and Chi-ming Yan... more This article takes up the call of scholars such as Robert Markley, David Porter, and Chi-ming Yang to investigate the relevance of early modern Chinese linguistics, morals, and government to eighteenth-century British literature. Despite its myriad Chinese references, Eliza Haywood’s The Adventures of Eovaai remains underexplored within scholarly forays into eighteenth-century Anglo-Sino relations and their literary manifestations. Haywood demonstrates an appreciation for Chinese models of language, morality, and government—models highly reminiscent of seventeenth-century Jesuits’ laudatory accounts of the Qing Empire. By demonstrating Haywood’s engagement with Jesuit Sinology, I argue that Eovaai encapsulates a striking moment in Anglo-Sino relations that perceives China as a site of superior political knowledge to be emulated. Moreover, Haywood’s references to Chinese political rectitude are integral to her critique of British political and national character.
Nineteenth-Century Contexts, 2014
Romanticism's Victorian Afterlife Over the course of the long nineteenth century, Britain's relat... more Romanticism's Victorian Afterlife Over the course of the long nineteenth century, Britain's relationship with China deteriorated from the high aspirations of George Lord Macartney's proposed diplomatic and economic partnership during the 1792-4 British Embassy, to the ignoble treaties of Nanjing (1842), Bogue (1843), and Tianjin (1858) that established Britain's imperial leverage over Chinese affairs. The Anglo-Chinese Wars (1839-42 and 1856-60), popularly known as the Opium Wars, are usually associated with Victorian, rather than Romantic, imperial practices. The military aggression exercised during the wars, as well as the treaties that concluded each conflict, typified Britain's more hostile imperial practices of the mid-to late nineteenth century. Accordingly, the Opium Wars appear to be ideologically removed from the preceding Romantic era's more ambiguous representations of China. Romantic literature, canonical and non, vacillated between depicting China as an established autonomous empire or as a desired conquerable territory. 1 However, Romantic literature's participation in Anglo-Sino discourse extended well into the nineteenth century. Although historical documentation suggests clear moments wherein Anglo-Sino relations were decidedly altered (e.g., the 1842 ceding of Hong Kong Island to the British), the literary representation of British attitudes toward the Chinese continued to be more muddled, even in the midst of the Opium Wars. Romantic literature-fiction and non-fiction, poetry and prose-experienced a revival within Chinese discourse of the 1840s and 1850s, regardless of the texts' original investment in Anglo-Sino relations. Mid-nineteenthcentury writers appropriated myriad Romantic texts by incorporating them into new reflections on Anglo-Sino conflict and using them, albeit anachronistically, to develop new arguments regarding Britain's imperial pursuits in China. John Barrow's Travels in China (1804) undergoes such an appropriation in Thomas De Quincey's essay "The English Mail-Coach, or the Glory of Motion" (1849).
The Wordsworth Circle, 2020
It is very easy to “harden ignorance into contempt,” and to assume that whatever is unknown isnot... more It is very easy to “harden ignorance into contempt,” and to assume that whatever is unknown isnotworth knowing: but the excellent usewhichhas already been made of oriental thoughts and imagery, derived from languages of Asia more familiar to us, might encourage some extension in the range of our enquiries. Fruits of the highest culturemay be improved and varied by foreign grafts; and as our gardens have already been indebted to China for a few choice flowers, who knows but our poetry may some day lie under a similar obligation. (452–53)