Presentations: Steam, Speed, and Modernity

Short Presentations-Guidelines

Schedule of Short Presentations

 

Short Class Presentations: Guidelines

 

·        They should be ideally 5-8 minutes (no longer than 10 minutes).

·        They should summarize a critical article, historical topic, literary text, or Victorian/ Neo-Victorian artifact

·        I encourage students to concentrate on not only critical articles and literary texts but also on other forms of media (including visual art, photography, websites, graphic novels, and computer games).

·        Short presentations form 5% of your final grade. 

 

Please read the list of presentation topics carefully.  If you cannot decide upon a topic, I have starred * those that are of particular significance for the course.

 

Almost all of the books and articles listed below are available for one hour and overnight loan at the library reserve desk.[1]  For display during class meetings students may use the in-room document camera (for images from books) and computer (which has easy web access and reads CDs).

 

Schedule of Short Presentations

 

Week 5

  1. Wed 2/15: Contemporary reviews of Mary Barton (Appendix B in your Broadview edition)- VALERIE VEGA  

 

Week 6

  1. Mon 2/20: Carlyle, Thomas. “Signs of the Times” (in your Hard Times Broadview edition)-  STEPHANIE FLECK

 

Week 7

  1. Mon 2/27: Turner, J. M. W. “Rain, Steam, and Speed—The Great Western Railway” (1844) in Turner: Rain, Steam, and Speed, ed. John Gage (in stacks)  - ANYA VENTURA

 

  1. Mon 2/27: Frith, William. “The Railway Station” (1862) in Victorian Taste, ed. Jeannie Chapel (in stacks)

 - SARAH WALCZEWSKI

 

  1. Wed 3/1: Wosk, Julie. “Traumas of Transport in 19th-Century Art,” Breaking Frame (book on reserve)

- KYLE BUESCHLEN

 

Project prospectus due (Thurs 3/2)

 

Spring Break

 

Week 8

  1. Mon 3/13: Matus, Jill. "Trauma, Memory, and Railway Disaster,” Victorian Studies (article on reserve)

- SHANNON WILLIAMS 

 

Take-home midterm due (Fri 3/17)

 

Week 9

  1. Wed 3/22: Nead, Lynda.  Victorian Babylon: People, Streets, and Images: 1st chapter (book on reserve)

- LAUREN RESSUE

 

  1. Wed 3/22: Cruikshank, George, “Charles Dickens Street” – PATRICK REINHART

 

Week 10

  1. Mon 3/27: Sternberger, Dolf. “Natural/ Artificial” (article on reserve)

 

  1. Wed 3/29: Chew, Kenneth and Anthony Wilson, Victorian Science and Engineering Portrayed in the Illustrated  London News: choose a few images to discuss (book on reserve; see below for a list of some images)

 

  1. Wed 3/29: The Crystal Palace: Patrick Beaver, The Crystal Palace: A Portrait of Victorian Enterprise and/or

John McKean, Crystal Palace: Joseph Paxton and Charles Fox (books on reserve)

 

Week 11

  1. Mon 4/3:  Schaffer, Simon, “Babbage’s Dancer and the Impresarios of Mechanism” (article on reserve)

- LAUREN LEWIS

 

Week 12

  1. Mon 4/10: Disraeli, Benjamin. Sybil: summary of the novel in its entirety- GENGHIS PHILIP

 

Week 14

  1. Mon 4/24: Steampunk as a genre: your choice of games, graphic novels, SF, games, or websites we have not discussed

 

 

 

 

 

Topics and Images for short presentations OR final project presentations

 

1.) *William P. Frith, "The Railway Station" (1862) - in Victorian Taste, ed. Jeannie Chapel (Zwemmer)

- In The Victorians, British Painting 1837-1901, ed. Malcolm Warner (National Gallery):

2.) *J. M. W. Turner, "Keelmen Heaving in Coals by Night" (1834-5) [see # 12-14]
3.) *Ford Madox Brown, "Work" (1852, 1856-63)
4.) *Augustus Leopold Egg, "Past and Present," no.s 1-3 (1857-8)
5.) *Edward Lear, "The Pyramids Road, Gizah" (1873)
6.) *Samuel Luke Fildes, "Applicants for Admission to a Casual Ward" (1872-4)  
7.) *James Tissot, "London Visitors" (1873-4)
8.) *James Tissot, "On the Thames" (1875-6)
9.) *Hubert von Herkomer, "Eventide: A Scene in the Westminster Union"   
10.) George Clausen, "A Spring Morning, Haverstock Hill" (1880-1)
11.) William Quiller Orchardson, "Mariage de Convenance" (1883)

-More paintings

12.) *J. M. W. Turner, “The Slave Ship” (Slavers throwing overboard the dead and the dying—Typhon coming on” (1840).  See detail.

13.) *J. M. W. Turner, “Snow storm: Steamboat off a Harbour’s Mouth” (1842)

13.) *J. M. W. Turner, "Burning of the Houses of Parliament" - 2 oils (1834)
14.) *J. M. W. Turner, "Rain, Steam, and Speed - The Great Western Railway" (1844) - in Turner: Rain, Steam, and Speed, ed. John Gage.
15.) *J. M. W. Turner, "Sunrise with Sea Monsters" (1845)

16.) *J. M. W. Turner, The Fighting "Temeraire" tugged to her last berth to be broken up
17.) *James Whistler, "Nocturne in Black and Gold: the Falling Rocket" (c. 1874)
18.) *Edward Burne-Jones, "The Mill" (1872-80)
19.) *Henry Hawkins, "Penryhn Slate Quarry" (1832)
20.) *James Tissot, "Gentleman in a Railway Carriage" (1872) [see # 7-8]
21.) *Various drawings and photos of the Great Exhibition(1851) [see # 30 and other Crystal Palace books below]
22.) *George Cruikshank, "Charles Dickens Street"

 

See also: A collection of images of signalmen, railway accidents, and railway construction—to be viewed alongside our Dickens readings.

In Victorian Science and Engineering Portrayed in the Illustrated London News, ed. Kenneth Chew and Anthony Wilson (Science Museum)

1.) "At work in a woolen factory" (1883) - p. 18
2.) "Crossfield’s soap works, Warrington" (1886) - p. 18
3.) "Atlantic cable" series (1857-66) - pp. 38-40
4.) "The Great Eastern" series (1857-60) - pp. 44-49
5.) "The Workmen’s Penny Train" (1865) - p. 62
6.) "The first locomotive into Indore" (1875) - p. 63 [see # 5]
7.) "Cannon Street Station" (1866) - p. 64-5
8.) "The Metropolitan Underground Railway" (1863) - pp. 74-5
9.) "Railway accident at Thirsk" (1892) - pp. 78-9
10) The Great Exhibition of 1851 series: "The Queen opens the Great Exhibition," "Brunel’s ‘monstrosity’ and Paxton’s palace," "The transept under construction" - pp. 90, 112-15 [see # 20 and other Crystal Palace books below]
11) The International Exhibition of 1862 series: "Forge used in building the International Exhibition," "Platt’s mule," "International Exhibition 1862, machinery in motion" - pp. 116-19 ]]]

-In Michael Freeman, Railways and the Victorian Imagination:

 

1.)    Railway prints by J.C. Bourne, A. F. Tait, and T. T. Bury – pp. 216-38

2.)    T. T. Bury, “Chasm of the Olive Mount Cutting” (1831) ­­– p. 27

3.)    Paul Pry, “March of Intellect” (1829) – p. 60

4.)    Popular sheet music discussed by Freeman – pp. 207-11

5.)    Toy trains and other educational materials – pp. 195-213 (See Thomas the Tank Engine below)

6.)    Abraham Solomon, “First Class – The Meeting,” “Second Class – The Parting” (1854)

 

Other texts to consult for presentations

 

-On Charles Babbage/ Ada Lovelace:

Swade, Doron.“Redeeming Charles Babbage’s Mechanical Computer.” Scientific American (Feb. 1993): 86-91.

Kim, Eugene and Betty Toole. “Ada and the First Computer.” Scientific American (May 1999): 76-81.

Charles Babbage and His Calculating Engines, ed. Philip Morrison (primary documents and a good introduction)

 

-On Victorian Gothic style (one Victorian art writer’s critique of mass production)

John Ruskin, “The Nature of Gothic.” Unto this Last and Other Writings, ed. Clive Wilmer (Penguin, 1986)

 

 

               


 
  

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[1] If you are unable to track down any of the listed books or articles, check with me.