To kick off the new semester, the C19 group will be reading and discussing Zadie Smith’sThe Fraud (2023). The Fraud was named one of the New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year and on the list of NPR’s Best Books of the Year. As stated on the publisher’s website, The Fraud is a “kaleidoscopic work of historical fiction set against the legal trial that divided Victorian England, about who gets to tell their story—and who gets to be believed.” Smith’s novel provides insights “about truth and fiction, Jamaica and Britain, fraudulence and authenticity and the mystery of other people.” The C19 group looks forward to discussing Smith’s representations of Victorian England in The Fraud.
During the fall 2023 semester, members of the C19 group read and discussed Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead. Demon Copperhead (2022) is a reimagining of Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield (1850). As stated on Kingsolver’s website, “Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can’t imagine leaving behind.” Kingsolver’s novel takes place in Appalachia; a setting she is familiar with as she grew up in eastern Kentucky. In an interview with Slate, Kingsolver expressed how part of her motive in writing the novel was “to counter those stereotypes (about Appalachians) and show the world a portrait of us with some subtlety.” The representations of and commentary on Appalachia were a major discussion point for our group. Our group further analyzed the impact of reading David Copperfield before Demon Copperhead, as Kingsolver has explicitly stated that Dickens is “not a prerequisite” for her novel. All members of the discussions enjoyed Demon Copperhead and many felt prompted to go back and revisit David Copperfield.
At the tail end of July, Professor Nancy Henry and Graduate Students Eliza Alexander Wilcox, Henry Kirby, and Amber Walters-Molina made their way to the University of California- Santa Cruz for the 42nd annual Dickens Universe conference. This Universe focused on Dickens’ 1859 novel A Tale of Two Cities and generated conversations about interdisciplinarity in Victorian studies, transatlantic materiality, and, of course, all things Dickens.
C19 Seminar Dickens Universe 2023 attendees. Left to Right: Eliza Alexander Wilcox, Amber Walters-Molina, Nancy Henry, and Henry Kirby.
C19 Seminar graduate students Eliza Alexander and Amber having dinner with fellow graduate students at the Dickens Universe welcome dinner.
Left to right: Eliza Alexander Wilcox, Nancy Henry, and Henry Kirby.
Eliza Alexander presenting key concerns to focus on from the first group discussion while Helena Michie broke it down into categories.
Graduate students ventured off campus for dinner in Santa Cruz. Featuring Henry Kirby.
Lively conversation and entertainment ensued at the Dickens Trivia Night hosted by the graduate student cruise directors.
Victorian Tea presented by the Friends of the Dickens Project.
Local turkeys attempting to get it into the lectures.
The Santa Cruz wildlife was in regular attendance at the conference.
Round table discussion with the Dickens Universe 2023 keynote speakers.
Dickens Universe members preformed a farce of “A Tale of Two Cities.”
The C19 seminar members all held various roles for the conference. Henry Kirby took the lead and acted as one of the graduate student cruise directors to help the Universe run smoothly. Eliza Alexander attended the graduate student writing workshop. Amber attended the publication workshop. Dr. Nancy Henry was a leader for one led the faculty-led Graduate Student Seminars.
To quote A Tale of Two Cities, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”
Nancy Henry, a senior faculty member of the C19 Seminar at the University of Tennessee, is the head organizer of the annual INCS conference alongside other members of the C19 Seminar who are working on the INCS organizing committee! Occurring in Knoxville, TN, from April 13-16, 2023, the conference will focus on movement in the 19th century.
Although our recent experience has been of restricted movement due to the pandemic, we live in a time of change to the ways we move (electric vehicles, space travel), mass dislocations and migrations around the world, and movements for political change (Black Lives Matter, #MeToo) tied to new communication tools.
The nineteenth century was also marked by accelerating movement(s): of peoples, commodities, ideas, technologies, and feelings. The period was characterized by the modernization of transportation,communication, and travel. Dance, theatre, sports, and literature flourished through new forms of physical movement that moved audiences in affectively novel ways. Political, social, and aesthetic movements reshaped culture and society. We welcome proposals on nineteenth-century movement and movements of all kinds.
The “Sallow Mr. Freely”:Sugar, Appetite, and Unstable Forms of Whiteness in George Eliot’s “Brother Jacob” 3:30 p.m., Wednesday, February 16 on Zoom https://tennessee.zoom.us/j/97160713573
Dr. Walters’ talk is part of her current book project, Affective Hybridities: Race, Mixture, and British Nationality from 1850-1901.
Alisha R. Walters is an Assistant Professor of Victorian Literature and Culture at Penn State University, Abington College. Her work examines representations of race and racial mixture in the nineteenth century, and her research focuses on the tensions between scientific and affective ideas of race, particularly in depictions of people of color in Victorian fiction. She also writes about colonial and literary depictions of food, as she considers what Victorians wrote about food and the dynamic process of national identity formation. Her work has appeared in journals such as Victorian Literature and Culture, Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies, and Women’s Writing and Victorian Review.
The c19 seminar celebrated the 40th Dickens Universe, featuring Charles Dickens’ most adapted novella, “A Christmas Carol,” with a Christmas feast at Emi’s beautiful home. This year, the c19 seminar and the University of Tennessee is sending graduate students Rochelle Davis, Josh Dobbs, Emi Gonzalez, Eliza Wilcox and Professor Nancy Henry to the virtual universe.
We are especially excited for Emi and Eliza’s first experience at the Universe! At the Universe, Emi and Josh will be co-teaching a graduate student led seminar on the novel as form to Universe attendees. Rochelle will be attending a seminar on conference presentation, and Eliza will be attending a Writing workshop
L: Rochelle Davis, Emi Gonzalez, Nancy Henry, Eliza Wilcox
Emi is most looking forward to the the panel “Marley was dead; to begin with’: Dickens, Death and Christmas” featuring Robert Patten (Rice), John Jordan (The Dickens Project/UC Santa Cruz) and Catherine Waters (University of Kent), “mainly because [death] is not something that you usually equate with Christmas time, but I know it is so central to the story, and I’m really excited to hear the speakers’ perspectives.”
Eliza is most looking forward to working with Dr. Ryan Fong (Kalamazoo) in her writing workshop; likewise, she is looking forward to “the panel on Black Adaptations of a A Christmas Carol [as it] seems like a wonderful opportunity to continue thinking about ways to re-invigorate and un-discipline the Victorian era and Victorian studies.”
Josh is excited to update his knowledge of contemporary research on A Christmas Carol: “…What I was looking forward to was learning what the more recent voices had to say concerning the novella and Dickens as an author. The Universe has done an amazing job of connecting Dickens to the current academic discussions, which has helped to keep Dickens as relevant as he has been through the years, and this year is no exception.”
Rochelle, Eliza, and Emi both are looking forward to the networking opportunities that is unique to Dickens Universe. As the conference started, Emi says she has been “enjoying the conversations that have been generating in both the graduate session [she is] leading, and the faculty led session [she is] attending.” As this is Rochelle’s second time attending the Universe, she has been glad to see graduate students from other institutions that she met at her first Universe and catch up on what new research they have been generating.
“I will live in the past, the present, and the future. The spirits of all three shall strive within me.” ― Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
On Tuesday, November 7, Helena Michie (Rice University) will give a talk titled “Middlemarch and Anniversary Thinking” at 3:30 pm in McClung 1210.
What does it mean to be celebrating George Eliotʼs 200th “birthday”?
Professor Michie will celebrate the bicentennial of George Eliot by exploring the cultural importance of the anniversary and what she calls anniversary thinking—that way of imagining time that records distance between events while acknowledging and relying
on repetition. She will go on to explore a specific set of anniversaries: three times (out of many) that she read Middlemarch and was inspired by noticing a different word. In the course of the talk Professor Michie will consider the act of rereading and its ties to other
forms of temporality; the intimacies of life as a reader; the power of difficult words; the relation between private and professional acts of reading; and the limits and possibilities of anniversary thinking.
Helena Michie is the author of five books in Victorian Studies and the study of gender and sexuality. Her most recent book, Love Among the Archives: Writing the Lives of Sir George Scharf, Victorian Bachelor, with Robyn Warhol, won the North American Victorian Studies Associations 2015 Best Book of the Year prize. Professor Michie teaches courses in feminist theory, literary theory, and Victorian literature and culture. She also teaches classes and workshops on professional writing. Professor Michie has served over the years in a number of administrative positions, including English Department Chair, director of the Program for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, and the founding Faculty Advisory Board Chair for the program in Writing and Communication.
c19seminar 