This talk comes out of James's very fresh research on Percy Shelley's time at Eton and his subsequent reception within the Victorian and Edwardian public schools. It explores Shelley's afterlife as an icon of aesthetic rebellion within the stultifying world of the school.
James's research also encompasses the classical curriculum and its different instantiations in the nineteenth-century schoolroom and even in nonsense verse, and the clever ways that schoolboys dodged disciplinary measures.
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| "The Schoolmaster's Return," 1825, courtesy of the Lewis Walpole Library. |
PS - this depicts James's subject, and not (we hope) the CORAL audience!
I wish I could attend, but I'll be there in spirit! It sounds like a lovely and fascinating lecture. I'd love to read any of Dr. Brooke-Smith's research if possible. Cheers.
ReplyDeleteDear Brandy,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the lovely comment! It was a super-interesting talk, that focused much more on institutions and on reception history than on Shelley's poetic oeuvre per se. It was really strong on educational history, looking at the profound difference between Romantic-era public schools and the same schools in the Victorian era and twentieth century, and it was also brilliant on reception history, including an anecdote about one of Robert Graves's professors at Oxford. The professor-to-be was being beaten by his headmaster for reading Shelley's subversive poetry, and cried out "Shelley is beautiful!" between every blow.
See you next time at CORAL!
All the best,
Emma