victorian literature and globalization georgetown university / english department spring 2013 n....
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Victorian Literature and Globalization Georgetown University / English DepartmentSpring 2013N. Hensley / [email protected] Hours: 316 New North, W 1-2, Th 2-3, and by appt.
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 (“informalempire” larger).400 million people formally subject to British sovereignty; more under “influence”
Political / Economic, yes, but also…
New Forms and Genres
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)Poet Laureate 1850-1892
1809-1892
Crimean War, 1854-56
“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
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