Phillippa Bennett | University of Northampton (original) (raw)
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Papers by Phillippa Bennett
Peter Lang eBooks, Jul 11, 2016
Peter Lang eBooks, Jul 11, 2016
A lecture on the representation of 'fallen' women and 'new' women in works by Chr... more A lecture on the representation of 'fallen' women and 'new' women in works by Christina Rossetti, Thomas Hardy and George Bernard Shaw given to the National Association of Decorative and Fine Art Societies - Nottinghamshire region
The Victorian, Aug 1, 2013
In the summer of 1872 William Morris abandoned his attempt to write a novel, claiming in a letter... more In the summer of 1872 William Morris abandoned his attempt to write a novel, claiming in a letter to Louisa Baldwin that it was 'a specimen of how not to do it', being 'nothing but landscape and sentiment'. My article proposes that Morris's rejection of the novel as an unsuitable mode of expression for his own literary and artistic aspirations was also a rejection of what he perceived to be an essentially bourgeois literary form. Instead, Morris found in the literary romance a far more effective vehicle for conveying both his artistic and political ideals as reflected in his own term for News from Nowhere, a classic literary utopia which Morris nonetheless preferred to call a 'utopian romance'. This article will argue that Morris's choice of the romance mode was itself a political act which rejected the hegemony of the novel as the dominant Victorian prose form, whilst demonstrating how, in his very last narratives, Morris adapted the romance to suit his own political ends as a revolutionary socialist. An extended version of this article will form a chapter in 'To Build a Shadowy Isle of Bliss': William Morris's Radicalism and the Embodiment of Dreams, edited by Paul Leduc Browne and Michelle Weinroth, to be published by McGill-Queen's University Press in 2014.
EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo
William Morris’s last romances are strikingly original stories written in his final years, but th... more William Morris’s last romances are strikingly original stories written in his final years, but they remain relatively neglected in both Morris studies and nineteenth-century literary studies. This book provides a full-length critical account of these works and their essential role in promoting the continuing importance of Morris’s ideas. Approaching these romances through the concept of wonder, this book provides a new way of understanding their relevance to his writings on art and architecture, nature and the environment,and politics and Socialism. It establishes the integral connection between the romances and Morris’s diverse cultural, social and political interests and activities, suggesting ways in which we might understand these tales as a culmination of Morris’s thought and practice. Through a comprehensive analysis of these remarkable narratives, this book makes a significant contribution to both work on William Morris and to nineteenth-century studies more generally.
The Victorian, Aug 1, 2013
In the summer of 1872 William Morris abandoned his attempt to write a novel, claiming in a letter... more In the summer of 1872 William Morris abandoned his attempt to write a novel, claiming in a letter to Louisa Baldwin that it was 'a specimen of how not to do it', being 'nothing but landscape and sentiment'. My article proposes that Morris's rejection of the novel as an unsuitable mode of expression for his own literary and artistic aspirations was also a rejection of what he perceived to be an essentially bourgeois literary form. Instead, Morris found in the literary romance a far more effective vehicle for conveying both his artistic and political ideals as reflected in his own term for News from Nowhere, a classic literary utopia which Morris nonetheless preferred to call a 'utopian romance'. This article will argue that Morris's choice of the romance mode was itself a political act which rejected the hegemony of the novel as the dominant Victorian prose form, whilst demonstrating how, in his very last narratives, Morris adapted the romance to suit his own political ends as a revolutionary socialist. An extended version of this article will form a chapter in 'To Build a Shadowy Isle of Bliss': William Morris's Radicalism and the Embodiment of Dreams, edited by Paul Leduc Browne and Michelle Weinroth, to be published by McGill-Queen's University Press in 2014.
Presenting thoughts and ideas on teaching Victorian literature at the Midlands Interdisciplinary ... more Presenting thoughts and ideas on teaching Victorian literature at the Midlands Interdisciplinary Victorian Studies Seminar and leading the subsequent workshop discussion
Victorian sensation fiction, covering works by Wilkie Collins and Mary Braddon, given to the Nott... more Victorian sensation fiction, covering works by Wilkie Collins and Mary Braddon, given to the Nottinghamshire branch of the National Association of Decorative and Fine Art Societies (NADFAS)
This is article was written for a special edition of The Journal of William Morris Studies, publi... more This is article was written for a special edition of The Journal of William Morris Studies, published Summer 2013 to honour Peter Faulkner, formerly of Exeter University and a leading Morris scholar. The article examines contemporary debates about higher education alongside similar debates in the nineteenth century, and more specifically in the nineteenth-century Socialist movement as exemplified in the work of William Morris. It provides an extensive analysis of Morris’s writings on education, something not addressed in any detail previously in Morris scholarship, drawing together a range of material from his political lectures, journalism and fiction. It considers how nineteenth-century Socialist concepts of education, and more specifically Morris’s own views on education, continue to be of relevance to contemporary debates about the nature, purpose and value of a public education system
A lecture on the representation of 'fallen' women and 'new' women in works by Chr... more A lecture on the representation of 'fallen' women and 'new' women in works by Christina Rossetti, Thomas Hardy and George Bernard Shaw given to the National Association of Decorative and Fine Art Societies - Nottinghamshire region
Writing and Culture in the Long Nineteenth Century, 2015
News from Nowhere (1890), Old Hammond describes England as 'a garden, where nothing is wasted and... more News from Nowhere (1890), Old Hammond describes England as 'a garden, where nothing is wasted and nothing is spoilt'. His companion Guest, a time traveller from the nineteenth century who has already been entertained with a brief tour of twenty-second-century London, questions this description. 'One thing, it seems to me, does not go with your word of "garden" for this country', he observes; 'you have spoken of wastes and forests, and I myself have seen the beginnings of your Middlesex and Essex forest. Why do you keep such things in a garden? And isn't it very wasteful to do so?' The explanation Old Hammond offers is that, as a society, Nowherians 'like these pieces of wild nature and can afford them, so we have them; let alone that as to the forests, we need a great deal of timber, and suppose that our sons and sons' sons will do the like.' 1 The wild thus has its place in Nowhere, serving both an aesthetic and a practical function. It meets, as Paul Meier observes, 'a dominating and impelling human need to draw from nature the means of existence as well as visual pleasure and healthy well-being'. 2 Living in an age in which, Morris claimed, 'if the air and the sunlight and the rain could have been bottled up and monopolized for the profit of the individual it would have been', it is no surprise that his vision of the future is one in which humanity has found a more appreciative and constructive engagement with the natural world. 3 News from Nowhere is largely regarded as Morris's culminating, if highly personalized, vision of Socialist ideals in practice. In May Morris's words, 'it epitomizes so much' in terms of Morris's thoughts and activities as a political campaigner in the 1880s, offering an imaginative interpretation of the ideas he had explored in his political lectures regarding how human beings might organize their communities and their interactions with Nature in a post-revolutionary society
Journal of William Morris Studies, Jan 1, 2005
Peter Lang eBooks, Jul 11, 2016
Peter Lang eBooks, Jul 11, 2016
A lecture on the representation of 'fallen' women and 'new' women in works by Chr... more A lecture on the representation of 'fallen' women and 'new' women in works by Christina Rossetti, Thomas Hardy and George Bernard Shaw given to the National Association of Decorative and Fine Art Societies - Nottinghamshire region
The Victorian, Aug 1, 2013
In the summer of 1872 William Morris abandoned his attempt to write a novel, claiming in a letter... more In the summer of 1872 William Morris abandoned his attempt to write a novel, claiming in a letter to Louisa Baldwin that it was 'a specimen of how not to do it', being 'nothing but landscape and sentiment'. My article proposes that Morris's rejection of the novel as an unsuitable mode of expression for his own literary and artistic aspirations was also a rejection of what he perceived to be an essentially bourgeois literary form. Instead, Morris found in the literary romance a far more effective vehicle for conveying both his artistic and political ideals as reflected in his own term for News from Nowhere, a classic literary utopia which Morris nonetheless preferred to call a 'utopian romance'. This article will argue that Morris's choice of the romance mode was itself a political act which rejected the hegemony of the novel as the dominant Victorian prose form, whilst demonstrating how, in his very last narratives, Morris adapted the romance to suit his own political ends as a revolutionary socialist. An extended version of this article will form a chapter in 'To Build a Shadowy Isle of Bliss': William Morris's Radicalism and the Embodiment of Dreams, edited by Paul Leduc Browne and Michelle Weinroth, to be published by McGill-Queen's University Press in 2014.
EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo
William Morris’s last romances are strikingly original stories written in his final years, but th... more William Morris’s last romances are strikingly original stories written in his final years, but they remain relatively neglected in both Morris studies and nineteenth-century literary studies. This book provides a full-length critical account of these works and their essential role in promoting the continuing importance of Morris’s ideas. Approaching these romances through the concept of wonder, this book provides a new way of understanding their relevance to his writings on art and architecture, nature and the environment,and politics and Socialism. It establishes the integral connection between the romances and Morris’s diverse cultural, social and political interests and activities, suggesting ways in which we might understand these tales as a culmination of Morris’s thought and practice. Through a comprehensive analysis of these remarkable narratives, this book makes a significant contribution to both work on William Morris and to nineteenth-century studies more generally.
The Victorian, Aug 1, 2013
In the summer of 1872 William Morris abandoned his attempt to write a novel, claiming in a letter... more In the summer of 1872 William Morris abandoned his attempt to write a novel, claiming in a letter to Louisa Baldwin that it was 'a specimen of how not to do it', being 'nothing but landscape and sentiment'. My article proposes that Morris's rejection of the novel as an unsuitable mode of expression for his own literary and artistic aspirations was also a rejection of what he perceived to be an essentially bourgeois literary form. Instead, Morris found in the literary romance a far more effective vehicle for conveying both his artistic and political ideals as reflected in his own term for News from Nowhere, a classic literary utopia which Morris nonetheless preferred to call a 'utopian romance'. This article will argue that Morris's choice of the romance mode was itself a political act which rejected the hegemony of the novel as the dominant Victorian prose form, whilst demonstrating how, in his very last narratives, Morris adapted the romance to suit his own political ends as a revolutionary socialist. An extended version of this article will form a chapter in 'To Build a Shadowy Isle of Bliss': William Morris's Radicalism and the Embodiment of Dreams, edited by Paul Leduc Browne and Michelle Weinroth, to be published by McGill-Queen's University Press in 2014.
Presenting thoughts and ideas on teaching Victorian literature at the Midlands Interdisciplinary ... more Presenting thoughts and ideas on teaching Victorian literature at the Midlands Interdisciplinary Victorian Studies Seminar and leading the subsequent workshop discussion
Victorian sensation fiction, covering works by Wilkie Collins and Mary Braddon, given to the Nott... more Victorian sensation fiction, covering works by Wilkie Collins and Mary Braddon, given to the Nottinghamshire branch of the National Association of Decorative and Fine Art Societies (NADFAS)
This is article was written for a special edition of The Journal of William Morris Studies, publi... more This is article was written for a special edition of The Journal of William Morris Studies, published Summer 2013 to honour Peter Faulkner, formerly of Exeter University and a leading Morris scholar. The article examines contemporary debates about higher education alongside similar debates in the nineteenth century, and more specifically in the nineteenth-century Socialist movement as exemplified in the work of William Morris. It provides an extensive analysis of Morris’s writings on education, something not addressed in any detail previously in Morris scholarship, drawing together a range of material from his political lectures, journalism and fiction. It considers how nineteenth-century Socialist concepts of education, and more specifically Morris’s own views on education, continue to be of relevance to contemporary debates about the nature, purpose and value of a public education system
A lecture on the representation of 'fallen' women and 'new' women in works by Chr... more A lecture on the representation of 'fallen' women and 'new' women in works by Christina Rossetti, Thomas Hardy and George Bernard Shaw given to the National Association of Decorative and Fine Art Societies - Nottinghamshire region
Writing and Culture in the Long Nineteenth Century, 2015
News from Nowhere (1890), Old Hammond describes England as 'a garden, where nothing is wasted and... more News from Nowhere (1890), Old Hammond describes England as 'a garden, where nothing is wasted and nothing is spoilt'. His companion Guest, a time traveller from the nineteenth century who has already been entertained with a brief tour of twenty-second-century London, questions this description. 'One thing, it seems to me, does not go with your word of "garden" for this country', he observes; 'you have spoken of wastes and forests, and I myself have seen the beginnings of your Middlesex and Essex forest. Why do you keep such things in a garden? And isn't it very wasteful to do so?' The explanation Old Hammond offers is that, as a society, Nowherians 'like these pieces of wild nature and can afford them, so we have them; let alone that as to the forests, we need a great deal of timber, and suppose that our sons and sons' sons will do the like.' 1 The wild thus has its place in Nowhere, serving both an aesthetic and a practical function. It meets, as Paul Meier observes, 'a dominating and impelling human need to draw from nature the means of existence as well as visual pleasure and healthy well-being'. 2 Living in an age in which, Morris claimed, 'if the air and the sunlight and the rain could have been bottled up and monopolized for the profit of the individual it would have been', it is no surprise that his vision of the future is one in which humanity has found a more appreciative and constructive engagement with the natural world. 3 News from Nowhere is largely regarded as Morris's culminating, if highly personalized, vision of Socialist ideals in practice. In May Morris's words, 'it epitomizes so much' in terms of Morris's thoughts and activities as a political campaigner in the 1880s, offering an imaginative interpretation of the ideas he had explored in his political lectures regarding how human beings might organize their communities and their interactions with Nature in a post-revolutionary society
Journal of William Morris Studies, Jan 1, 2005