This week, we again have something a little different. Because Faber's novel gets its title from a nineteenth century poem, I have found a reading of the poem to include in this resource guide. It's a quick video compared to weeks past, but with it, you can think about how this poem may have inspired the novel in ways outside of its title. What ideas come to mind? What conclusions regarding their relationship can you make?

Further reading:

1. "Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal" from the Poetry Foundation

   • First up this week is the text of Tennyson's poem "Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal." You can hear it read in the video to the right, but for analytical purposes, I want to provide you with the text as well.

2. "The Crimson Petal and the White: Whores, porn and lunatics"

   • Because it's been nearly two decades since the novel's publication, I have chosen an extensive book review for you to see how it was received at the time (2002). Hughes discusses the sensationalism of the novel and even compares it to Charles Dickens.

3. "The Aesthetics of Filth in Sweet Thames, The Great Stink, and The Crimson Petal and The White"

   • Here, Tomaiuolo provides an anthropological examination of the text alongside some of its contemporary counterparts. By reading an article that discusses the novel's relation to other similar novels, we can gain a better understanding of the Neo-Victorian landscape, all while receiving an investigation of culture in the novel.

4. "Gender Issues and Stereotypes in Neovictorian Fiction: The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber"

   • Here, Cordea examines gender in the novel, looking specifically at Sugar and Agnes and how the two of them represent the growth of women's societal status throughout the long Victorian period. In this examination, then, the two woman stand for opposing ends of the time period.

5. "Dickensian Childhoods: Blighted Victorian Children in Michel Faber's The Crimson Petal and the White"

   • This final journal article relates back to the Guardian's review of the novel, explaining Faber's connections to Dickens in the novel. Rees argues that Faber aligns with the contemporary reader and their interest in experiencing the rough childhoods of those in the nineteenth century.

So far, we've covered a number of different types of videos on this blog. For Poor Things, that is no exception. To the right is an audio clip from a podcast on which Gray appeared. He introduces the novel, allowing the listener insight into the metafiction of the novel due to Gray's position within the novel. He also reads an excerpted section of Poor Things, which I wanted to include since we haven't so far on this blog gotten to listen to a writer read any of their work—and this felt like the most appropriate text thus far for which to do this.

Further reading:

1. "Metafiction (Wikipedia Article)

   • As a first source for this book, one might review the metafiction page on Wikipedia. This novel is dependent on metafiction, structuring itself in a number of layers. Reviewing this page may help inform one's reading and/or appreciation of the text (and how it fits into a greater conversation and lineage of metafictional texts).

2. "True Nations and Half People: Rewriting Nationalism in Alasdair Gray's Poor Things"

   • Because of Gray's position as a Scottish nationalist writer, this second source examines how nationalism is represented in the novel. Leishman looks at this under the lens of national multiplicity and ultimately through hybridity.

3. "The "Poor Thing": The Cosmopolitan in Alasdair Gray's Poor Things."

   • This third source further looks at the novel through a political lens. Here, Vardoulakis looks at cosmopolitanism, arguing that this novel makes a couple of moves toward autonomy. This examination looks at both personal and social identity.

4. "Parodied Locations: A Play on Genre Conventions and Place in Flan O'Brien's The Poor Mouth and Alasdair Gray's Poor Things."

   • This penultimate source puts Gray in conversataion with another novelist. It investigates how the two work with traditional genre conventions in relation to their homelands, which, in a way, continues the conversation begun in our second source.

5. "How Britain failed to deal with systemic racism"

   • This final source comes from The Guardian and provides a more in-depth look at Gray and his writing. Because his personhood is so attached to his writing, this final source should help inform one's reading of the novel and its portrayal of metafiction, place, and the self.

Thus far, my included videos have covered the neo-Victorian period and a trailer for a screen adaptation of a novel. However, this time I'm taking a slightly different route. Included in my resources is a review of the Arthur & George television mini-series, and to the right I've included a behind the scenes video, where one can see the making of the show and some of the thought processes behind this rendition of a real life story (and of the novel of the same name). The review mentions that the series strays from the novel and real life, but might something in the video elucidate this transfiguration?

Further reading:

1. "The Partial Postcoloniality of Julian Barnes's Arthur & George"

   • This first source dives directly into the political impact of this novel—is it postcolonial? Is it not? Here, this is examined with textual evidence, and I've included this because race is an intrinsic factor in the novel and we today need to always be aware of colonialism and how we are or are not combatting it.

2. "Review: ‘Arthur & George’ and the Longest Case Ever"

   • In the U.K., Barnes' novel became a mini-series on television, and this New York Times article reviews the series on its own in addition to how it follows or strays from both Barnes' novel and from real life.

3. "Sherlock Holmes: Description, Stories, Books, and Facts"

   • This third source offers a complete history of Sherlock Holmes, who, in an interesting way, is a real sort of specter in Arthur & George. Without knowledge on this character, the novel doesn't have as much of an impact, and with it, you can analyze more for intertextuality.

4. "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the case of George Edalji"

   • This penultimate source examines Doyle and Edalji from the real world, offering insight into their lives outside of Barnes' text. This not only helps one get to know them better, but helps in one's analysis of life versus fiction and how the two coexist or even challenge one another.

5. "How Britain failed to deal with systemic racism"

   • Finally, this article discusses the history of racism in the U.K. Race plays a role in the novel, and despite so much time having passed since these real life events, racism is still an overwhelming issue in our contemporary world. This provides contex historically but also for the present, which can help one's reading.

Where the prior resource entry offered a video that offered history and context for Victorian (and consequently neo-Victorian) literature, this entry provides a trailer for Netflix's adaptation of Atwood's novel. Sharing the same name as the novel, Alias Grace translates both history and fiction for the screen, and it can be considered further "reading" if you are interested after completing the novel. Because this novel is based on a real event, this opens you up to ample room for analysis, having the real event, the novel, and the screen adaptation to work with.

Further reading:

1. "Feminist Narratology Revisited: Dialogizing Gendered Rhetorics in Alias Grace"

   • This source is listed first because it combines two of the key themes: storytelling and gender. Here, Douglas argues that there are competing rhetorics at play, citing Grace's recounting of her life as one style of rhetoric, with the rest of the characters possessing their own unique narrations.

2. "In Search of Alias Grace: On Writing Canadian Historical Fiction"

   • This second source takes a slightly different approach, coming from Atwood herself. Here, she gives a lecture at the University of Ottawa, discussing Canadian historical fiction and really historical fiction as a broader genre. She touches on memory and time and these factor into history, writing, and these two's intersections.

3. "The Mysterious Murder Case That Inspired Margaret Atwood’s ‘Alias Grace’"

   • This third source strays from scholarly work and dives directly into history and fact. Here, Katz delves fully into the murders of Thomas Kinnear and Nancy Montgomery, providing historical context for the novel and on the real Grace Marks. She includes mentions of Atwood and creates a centered space where history meets fiction and the truth is somewhere in time.

4. "The Representation of Colonial Canada in Margaret Atwood's "Alias Grace""

   • While the seminar paper in its entirety is locked behind a paywall, this webpage offers a lot of it—enough of it to include it because what is there covers a lot of ground (pun intended). Here, Atwood's novel is connected to colonization in Canada, providing both analysis of its representation in the novel and historical context that differs from the other historical contexts we get from the above sources. Colonization in North America is something we should never forget, so I wanted to include something on this, even if it isn't the entire paper (though if one wanted to read the entire thing, they could for $0.99).

5. "Hysteria and Traumatic Testimony: Margaret Atwood's 'Alias Grace'"

   • Finally, this journal article looks at trauma in the novel, a theme that the other sources do not explicitly talk about but which is incredibly important. Here, Darroch argues that Atwood is able to really explore attitudes and perceptions of hysteria, mental illness, and trauma during the time by writing a character with such a tumultuous past and who continues to have a rocky life.

Because this is my first resource guide on this website, I think it is appropriate to start with some background on the Victorian era due to these novels' engagements with this time period. The video to the right gives a brief historical account of the period, but one main takeaway to keep in mind is that the period was a time of great change. It was a long period, with Victoria reigning for over six decades, so there was ample change in every aspect of life, society, and culture, including literature. It is important to note, though, that the categorical term "Victorian" refers exclusively to Britain and its literature and culture during the time of Queen Victoria's nineteenth century reign.

Further reading:

1. "A. S. Byatt's 'Possession': A Fairytale Romance"

   • While this journal article is harder to access, I wanted to include it because it provides variety, is of particular interest to me, and might prove useful for those who can access it. In this article, Victoria Sanchez argues that the fairy tale elements present in the novel bridge the two pairs of lovers despite their different time periods. Furthermore, she argues that fairy tales offer women voices in ways they may not otherwise have in the Victorian period.

2. "The Never-ending Quest: Possession as a Postmodern Literary Romance"

   • Here, Alli Carlisle examines the novel through a sharp postmodern lens, exploring how the romance works in postmodernism along with how postmodernism works more generally. She discusses how postmodernism is a place of both deconstruction and reconstruction, and this particularly applies to the novel, where every discovery Roland and Maud make both deconstructs and reconstructs the past and their understanding of it.

3. "Fantasies of (Re)Collection: Collecting and Imagination in A. S. Byatt's 'Possession: A Romance'"

   • In this essay, John J. Su explores the past as its seen through Byatt's lens in Possession. He examins broader questions regarding the past, such as if we in the present day are even able to achieve a truthful understanding of the past through material objects alone. Furthermore, he looks at material objects from the past in relation to identity and societal roles.

4. "Retracing Myth in A. S. Byatt's Possession: A Romance"

   • Here, Manuel Botero Camacho and Manuel Núñez Valeiras examine the ways in Roland as a character is a living archive of various Western hero archetypes. In this way, Byatt's novel not only contains multitudes in its genres and storytelling, but also in its characters and the various roles and traits they inhabit.

5. "Metafiction, Fairy Tale, and Female Desire in A.S. Byatt‘s Possession: A Romance"

   • Finally, Susan Marie Kieda primarily investigates two things in her article: the roles of women in the novel and the ways in which she reappropriates modes of writing. To do this, she examines women both in the domestic sphere and in the literary sphere in the novel, contrasting their experiences. Moreover, she looks at the way Byatt redefines fairy tales and how they can be used.