English Language and Literature Commons^™

George Eliot Birthday Luncheon: The Toast To The Immortal Memory 1999, Kathryn Hughes

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

It is a tremendous honour to be talking to you today. When I first started work on my biography of George Eliot back in 1993 I never imagined that I would one day be celebrating her birthday with the people to whom her life and work mean so much, the members of the George Eliot Fellowship.

Of course, when I began my research all those years ago, I knew that I would be learning about one of the greatest literary artists of the nineteenth century. But what I hadn't anticipated was just how modem and relevant George Eliot's work would …

Reading Space As Time In Great Plains Recollective Architecture, Paul A. Olson

Department of English: Faculty Publications

It is a long way from Black Elk's tipi to the Stuart building. Clearly most cultures and periods impose one or more narrative plots on time and space (I have written of four that were part of the recent past of this state). It may be that we will need soon to return again to a celebration of the cyclical in our architecture. If the ethos of domination that goes with linear, progressive notions of time is as destructive to our environment as the Club of Rome (and other successor study groups looking at the future of the planet) have …

A Black Range Christmas Tree, Thomas Lynch

Department of English: Faculty Publications

Driving north from Las Cruces on I-25, one departs the relative green of the sheltered town of tree-lined streets and enters stark desert. The view while skirting the southern edge of the Jornada del Muerto is hardly promising for an expedition, like ours, in search of a Christmas tree.

At Risk In The Writing Classroom: Negotiating A Lesbian Teacher Identity, Irene G. Meaker

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

"Education is a fearful enterprise," says teacher and philosopher, Parker Palmer. Student-centered/ processoriented pedagogy asks teachers to step out from behind the relative safety of the teacher mask and to enter the risky arena of learning. For the writing teacher, a special challenge is to help students negotiate the risks inherent in the act of writing and in sharing writing with the "Other."

To prevent fears from dominating our students, teachers must model risk-taking and risk negotiation. In my own teaching, my fears around students' reactions to learning my sexual identity meant that I more often reinforced fears than dispelled …

Literacy Practices At The Genoa Industrial Indian School, Amy M. Goodburn

Department of English: Faculty Publications

Despite an abundance of scholarship on federal Indian boarding schools, few studies have focused on literacy as a central term for investigation. Although literacy studies is necessarily interdisciplinary and contributes to insights about the relationship between language and, in Levinson and Holland's words, the "cultural production of the educated person," few Indian boarding-school histories have focused on the significance of particular literacy practices for understanding Indian students' school experiences. When literacy is discussed, it is usually in terms of the federal "English only" requirement that prohibited Indian languages or the drill and rote exercises used in the primary language curriculum. …

Racing (Erasing) White Privilege In Teacher/Research Writing About Race, Amy M. Goodburn

Department of English: Faculty Publications

In this essay, I examine several spheres of “race construction” and the ethical implications of these constructions for how I—as a white composition teacher/researcher—named, described, and interpreted student response in a dissertation chapter I wrote on a student discussion of Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye within a writing course focused on “difference.” This essay describes my own process of coming to understand the ways that my readings of classroom events were/are shaped by my position as a white teacher/researcher and the implications for understanding what naming these moments might mean for others engaged in composition research. In particular, I examine …

"Links Of Similitude": The Narrator Of The Country Of The Pointed Firs And Author-Reader Relations At The End Of The Nineteenth Century, Melissa J. Homestead

Department of English: Faculty Publications

The narrator of The Country of the Pointed Firs is an elusive figure. A narrator who is also a character in the fiction, she nevertheless reveals very little about herself as a character in the course of her narration. She is the unnamed speaking "I," and she is "you" to Mrs. Todd and other characters. Although the narrator apparently travels to Dunnet Landing from a city, we don't know where she lives the rest of the year; and we can only assume from her time spent in the schoolhouse engaged in "literary employments" that she writes for pay. But critics …

Milly Barton And Emma Gwyther, Kathleen Adams

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

For many years the tomb of Emma Gwyther in Chilvers Coton Churchyard in Nuneaton was totally obscured by a massive yew tree until it was recently cut back to reveal the sorry state of the tomb beneath it. Badly broken and its lettering difficult to read, it was clearly in great need of some restoration because of its place in the George Eliot story.

There seems little doubt that Emma Gwyther was the original of Milly Barton, the hard-working wife of the Rev. Amos Barton in Scenes of Clerical Life. Emma's husband was the Rev. John Gwyther, curate of Chilvers …

An Echo Of The "Holy War", Bill Adams

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

George Eliot's 'Holy War' began on 2 January 1842 and lasted for four and a half months. That day her father made a significant entry in his Journal: 'Went to Trinity Church in the forenoon ... Mary Ann did not go'. In the protracted dispute with her father that followed this refusal to accompany him to church, her friends the Sibrees arranged for her to meet the Rev. Francis Watts, Professor of Theology at Spring Hill College, Birmingham, to try to help her resolve her difficulties. Their meeting probably took place in March 1842, and subsequently she wrote him six …

A Tchaikovsky/George Eliot Opera That Never Happened

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

The Tchaikovsky Museum at Klin in Moscow in Russia had, amongst the composer's papers, a manuscript of fragments of a scenario for an opera on the theme of 'Mr. Gilfil 's Love-Story', the second story in Scenes of Clerical Life.

Tchaikovsky modestly mentions this in his biography, stating that at first he proposed an opera based on 'The Sad Fortunes of the Reverend Amos Barton', the first story in Scenes but was drawn instead to another of the stories, 'Mr. Gilfil's Love-Story'. The composer's friend, the music critic G. A. Larosh, mentions in his memoirs that for some weeks before …

A Postcard To Rev.F.R. Evans (George Eliot's Nephew)

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

'Re George Eliot' 'A' [in red ink]

(Mary Ann Evans)

Sir, I assume that you read the Ten Commandments in your church - yet in the Nuneaton Chronicle article in The Star of Aug. 7, you are said by A. E. Cross 1 to be in favour of a memorial to this 'evil-liver'. Let us hope that if people who gloat over the uncleanly erect a memorial the 'Scarlet letter' 'A" (Adulteress) will be conspicuously placed - as it is written by many of us on the title page of her works -

Let the silly project die or her …

The George Eliot Review: Journal Of The George Eliot Fellowship 1999 No. 30, Beryl Gray, John Rignall

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

CONTENTS

Notes on Contributors ................................................................................... 5

Editors' Note ........................................................................................... 7

REPORTS Kathleen Adams: Annual Report 1998 ........................................ 9

Yuriko Kani: Japanese Branch Report ................................................... 16

Linda K. Robertson: Report from America .................................................... 18

ADDRESSES Margaret Jennings: Address at the wreath-laying in the George Eliot Memorial Garden, 17 May 1998 ................................................ .19

Lord Hattersley: Address at the wreath-laying in Westminster Abbey, 20 June 1998 .......................................................... 21

Henry Alley: The Twenty-Seventh George Eliot Memorial Lecture, l7 October 1998 ............................................... 23

Tenniel Evans: The Toast to the Immortal Memory: George Eliot Birthday Luncheon, 22 November 1998 ......................................... 36

ARTICLES A.G. van den Broek: …

Henry James And George Eliot: Realism, Reality, And Narrative Form, Nicola Harris

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

The narratives of the Victorian writers are infused with detailed expositions of living, felt pictures; it was inevitable given the expectations of their audience. Furthermore, writers-cumcritics such as Henry lames testify to the difficulty of 'drawling] a hard and fast line on the border-land of explanation and illustration'.' lames was central to the protracted Great Debate surrounding 'The Art of Fiction' which took place in 1884, and the discussion encouraged Robert Louis Stevenson to respond with his 'A Humble Remonstrance', a gesture which can be interpreted as a tactical manoeuvre to keep the debate open. Andrew Lang's own 'The Art …

The Politics Of Religion In Felix Holt, A.G. Van Den Broek

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

In chapter 3 of Felix Holt, the narrator gives an account of the 'social changes in Treby parish', including the altered character of Trebian Dissent. It had

been of a quiescent, well-to-do kind, represented architecturally by a small venerable, dark-pewed chapel, built by Presbyterians, but long occupied by a sparse congregation of Independents, who were as little moved by doctrinal zeal as their church-going neighbours, and did not feel themselves deficient in religious liberty, inasmuch as they were not hindered from occasionally slumbering in their pews, and were not obliged to go regularly to the weekly prayer meeting.

In the …

Annual Report 1998, Kathleen Adams

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

Every year I begin this report by saying what a busy year the Fellowship has had. Every year it seems to get busier; certainly the workload increases each year - which must be a measure of our success in reaching out in all directions, not only in the UK but abroad as well.

We begin each year in a fairly uneventful way with the Annual General Meeting, and 1998 was in the same mould, although we followed the business meeting with an excellent slide show by John Burton of the George Eliot Country in the past. John was elected to …

The Twenty-Seventh George Eliot Memorial Lecture: Ego, Anonymity, And Healing In George Eliot, Henry Alley

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

Eliot's ultimate goal- morally, aesthetically - was to free the individual ego from the suffering of reflecting upon itself. Her fiction, which she saw as a series of evolving psychological phases, achieves this liberation through strongly argued models of balance and through the kinds of recognition linked to anonymous heroism. Mental anguish is to be escaped through the contemplation of others, and it would follow that Eliot's cumulative effort would clarify what it means to acquire achievements on the level of quiet and anonymous bequeathal, rather than self-aggrandizing glory.

Eliot discovered that a broad perspective beyond ego may be developed …

Daniel Deronda- 1921 Style, Kathleen Adams

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

While we are still awaiting news of the completion of a new film of Daniel Deronda, something that has been in the pipeline for some years, it is interesting to discover that in 1921, a cinema film of the novel was made by Butcher's Film Services Ltd of Camera House, Farringdon Avenue, London EC4. In the 5,500 feet of film Butcher's made a gallant attempt to transfer George Eliot's last great novel onto the screen but previews seemed somewhat disenchanted with the results. The Kinematograph Weekly of 19 May 1921 reported that 'Although George Eliot is not ideally suited to …

Report From America, Linda K. Roberston

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

The ninth annual George Eliot Dinner was held during the Modem Language Association meeting in San Francisco, California. Members of the Fellowship and friends met at Puccini and Pinetta on December 29 for excellent conversation and food. The evening included the traditional Toast to the Immortal Memory, greetings from members who could not attend, and much discussion of recent books on George Eliot and related topics. Harriet Williams located the superb Italian restaurant, which was very conveniently located, and made the arrangements.

"Searching For The Route Of Inventions": Retracing The Renaissance Discovery Narrative In Gabriel García Márquez, Elizabeth Spiller

Department of English: Faculty Publications

If, as Harold Bloom suggests. One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) is a "supreme fiction," it achieves that status as it reformulates early modern narratives of self-discovery and dominion. Garcia Márquez signals his intention of rewriting the great Renaissance narratives of discovery when he begins his 1982 Nobel Prize acceptance speech with an account of Antonio Pigafetta's Viaggio attorno al mondo (1522). As a navigator aboard Magellan's 1519–21 voyage around the world, Pigafetta kept a log that Garcia Márquez categorizes as an ancestor "of our contemporary novels." Where many Latin American writers might describe their work as postcolonial. García Márquez …

Journeying And Wandering In The Narrative Of The Knight's Tale, William Thomas Hill, Robert S. Haller

Department of English: Faculty Publications

An essay on the journeying and wandering in the Knight's Tale found in the Canterbury Tales by Chaucer.

Professionalizing Ta Training: Commitment To Teaching Or Rhetorical Response To Market Crisis?, Carrie Shively Leverenz, Amy M. Goodburn

Department of English: Faculty Publications

Although English Studies as a discipline is often seen as fractured and contentious, there is one subject about which most of us can agree: the job market for new PhDs in English is bad and not likely to improve any time soon. In Bettina Huber’s widely cited survey of the results of the 1993-1994 job search, only 45.9% of candidates found tenure-track jobs. The recent report from the MLA Committee on Professional Employment projects similar figures for the foreseeable future. The fact that the number of graduate students with PhDs in English—especially those with concentrations in literary studies or creative …

George Eliot Birthday Luncheon: The Toast To The Immortal Memory 1998, Tenniel Evans

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

Sixty-two years ago, almost to the day - a freezing 25 November 1936 - I arrived at the London docks from Africa and came, without realizing it at the time, to live in the country of my background. I was to live with Alison and Rupert Winser and their family in the Rectory at Allesley, just outside Coventry, and it became my home for the next five years. By the end of that time, of course, the war had blown away the old life and it would never be the same again. So I was lucky that at least I …

Wreath-Laying In Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey 1998, Roy Hattersley

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

I take a strange pleasure in being associated, no matter how vicariously, with the greatest novelist in the English language. I am by no means sure that she would approve of this event. Asked about God, Immortality and Duty - strange topics of conversation to be raised during an afternoon's stroll - 'she pronounced with terrible earnestness how inconceivable was the first, how unbelievable the second and how peremptory and absolute the third'. But there she is in black, polished marble on the floor of Westminster Abbey - the junkyard of the nation's vanities.

She keeps appropriate company, in a …

A Beginner's Mind, Thomas Lynch

Department of English: Faculty Publications

In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert’s there are few.
—Shunryu Suzuki

Recently I moved to Las Cruces in the southern part of New Mexico. My new home lies in the Mesilla Valley of the Rio Grande, as it courses muddy through the Chihuahuan desert, North America’s largest but least celebrated arid land. The Organ Mountains rise to the east, serrating the dawn’s liminal blue. In the fi rst few weeks of my residence, I made some tentative contacts with the landscape on a series of short hikes, toting my 16-month-old boy, Riley, in a backpack. …

Nativity, Domesticity, And Exile In Edward Abbey's "One True Home", Thomas Lynch

Department of English: Faculty Publications

On April first, 1956, only a few days prior to recording in his journal the birth of his son, Edward Abbey began the first of three seasons as a ranger in Arches National Monument. He immortalized this sojourn in the influential classic of nature writing Desert Solitaire, a work whose very title suggests that his experience of the desert was one essentially aloof from familial or other ties. As Abbey reveled in his desert solitude, his wife, Rita, and new son, Joshua, were summering in Hoboken. During subsequent years his wife and son visited periodically with him, but never for …

Wreath-Laying In The George Eliot Memorial Garden Nuneaton, May 1998, Margaret Jennings

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

In paying tribute to George Eliot today we acknowledge a debt of gratitude owed to her for the legacy of wonderful novels which have enriched so many lives during both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

As we approach the twenty-first century I find myself considering how her work will be greeted by the coming generations, indeed not just in a new century but in a new millenium.

In the early part of this century, the Bloomsbury writer Virginia Woolf helped restore George Eliot's standing as a great novelist by claiming that Middlemarch was one of the few novels for grown-up …

Literacy Research: Issues Of Authority, Ownership, And Representation, Amy M. Goodburn

Department of English: Faculty Publications

With the “social turn” of language in the past decade within English studies, ethnographic and teacher research methods increasingly have acquired legitimacy as a means of studying student literacy. And with this legitimacy, graduate students specializing in literacy and composition studies increasingly are being encouraged to use ethnographic and teacher research methods to study student literacy within classrooms. Yet few of the narratives produced from these studies discuss the problems that frequently arise when participant observers enter the classroom. Recently, some researchers have begun to interrogate the extent to which ethnographic and teacher research methods are able to construct and …

It’S A Question Of Faith: Discourses Of Fundamentalism And Critical Pedagogy In The Writing Classroom, Amy M. Goodburn

Department of English: Faculty Publications

In the past decade, the discourses of critical pedagogy (Giroux, Kincheloe, McLaren, Simon) have shaped the arena of composition studies (Berlin & Vivion, Bizzell, Fox, Hurlbert & Blitz, Knoblauch & Brannon, Shor). As compositionists turn to writing pedagogics that explore how issues of difference shape people’s lives, many have begun to examine how social constructs of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and so on account for the ways that students read and write about texts. While these constructs are clearly important for students to examine in terms of their personal and social identities, there is another difference that usually remains …

Obituary- Ezell

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

We are sad to report the death on February 23rd. of Dr. Ezell at his home in Vermont. He had been one of our most supportive and active members. In the early 1970's a literary lady wrote a somewhat patronising letter to the Times Literary Supplement about the Fellowship's efforts to raise funds for a memorial stone to George Eliot in Westminster Abbey. It was read in the United States by Dr. Ezell. He felt so strongly about the dismissive tone of the letter that he immediately became a life member of the Fellowship, enrolled some of his patients, appealed …

The Idea Of An English Gentleman: Mr. Knightley And Arthur Donnithorne, David Ball

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

My modest purpose in this essay is to develop the interesting suggestion of Ellen Moers in Literary Women that George Eliot's inspiration to write Adam Bede may well have lain in her attentive reading of Emma: that Adam Bede himself is the heroic and detailed portrait of Robert Martin that Emma has no place for. George Eliot's father, Robert Evans, was a mari similar to Robert Martin and Adam Bede, in both status and ability, and the creation of Adam is Eliot's first fictional tribute to him. Ellen Moers also briefly compares Harriet Smith and Hetty Sorrel as sharing 'the …