Darwin and Lancelot, suffragists and sibyls, dungeons and factories – the Pre-Raphaelite movement combined the latest scientific realism with utopian escapes from poverty and social unrest. Through close readings of paintings by Rossetti, Millais, and Holman Hunt; writings by Ruskin, Wilkie Collins, and Tennyson; and photographs by Julia M. Cameron, Oscar Rejlander, and Lewis Carroll (among others), this seminar addresses themes such as the gendering of work and leisure; the construction of Victorian childhood; machinism and the Great Exhibition of 1851; and Victorian narrative strategies and amusements.
