Victorian Literature and Globalization Georgetown University / English Department Fall 2015 N. Hensley / nathan.hensley@georgetown.edu Marielle Hampe / mdh66@georgetown.edu NH Office Hours: 316 New North, T, 1:30-3, Th, 3-4 , and by appt. MH Office Hours: W 2-4 Midnight Mug

What is “Victorian Literature”? 1837-1901 Boom of print culture “Rise of the novel” “Modernization” Legacy of the Romantics (1789-1837)

What is “globalization”?

George Cruikshank, The British Beehive, 1867, etching

Free Trade / World Markets “Free-trade … will act on the moral world as the principle of gravitation on the universe, drawing men together, thrusting aside antagonism of race, and creed, and language, and uniting us in the bonds of eternal peace.” --Richard Cobden, British MP, Speeches (1846) “It is the business of government to open and to secure the roads for the merchant” --Lord Palmerston to Aukland 22 January 1841

Karl Marx, The Grundrisse (1857-8) “Thus while capital must on the one side strive to tear down every spatial barrier to intercourse, i.e. to exchange, it strives on the other side to annihilate this space with time, i.e. to reduce to a minimum the time spent in motion from one place to another. The more developed the capital, therefore, the more extensive the market over which it circulates, which forms the spatial orbit of its circulation, the more does it strive for…. an even greater extension of the market and for greater annihilation of space by time.” (539).

The Nemesis destroying Chinese war junks during the Second Battle of Chuenpee, 7 January 1841, First Opium War (1839-42)

By 1900: ¼ of globe’s surface ruled formally by England (“informal empire” was larger). 400 million people formally subject to British sovereignty; more under “influence”

William Booth, In Darkest England, and the Way Out. (1890)

Political / Economic / Experiential, yes, but also… New Forms and Genres

1886

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) Poet Laureate 1850-1892

1809-1892

Crimean War, 1854-56 Russia vs. France, Britain, Ottoman Empire, & Kingdom of Sardinia

Roger Fenton, Valley of the Shadow of Death, 1855

“The Charge of the Light Brigade” Meter: Dactylic: / U U Story circulated by telegraph, newspaper Drafts of poem circulated by telegraph & penny post Published, after being typeset and reformatted, in The Examiner newspaper

What is a dactyl? (“finger”)

Changes. Notice three sets of handwriting: the main body is in Emily Tennyson’s hand, Alfred’s wife; the title, alterations and note is in Alfred Tennyson’s hand and the note to the left of the title is in his publisher’s hand. This is the second version. P60 The Charge of the Light Brigade, 1854. 17.9cm. MS Single sheet folded. Copy in Emily, Lady Tennyson’s hand, with corrections and alterations in AT’s hand.

More changes.

Yet more changes.

“Charge of the Light Brigade,” as read by Tennyson and recorded on wax cylinder, c. 1890