Sunday, December 15, 2019

Fairies in America During the Nineteenth Century

 

Figure 1.  Child Virginia Caldwell in Fairy Costume.  From my personal collection.
Fairies were not only popular in Victorian England, but also in America.  It is important to note that America during this time consisted of mostly European immigrants and their descendants, people highly influenced by British culture. 

Figure 2.  Sheet music cover for C. Kinkel's Fairy Footsteps Mazurka Elegante, 1863, StreetSwing, 2019.

Fairies were especially a popular topic for American music.  Charles Kinkel's Fairy Footsteps Mazurka Elegante (1863) is one such example.

Another similarly named American musical composition involving fairies is S. Palmer's Fairy Footsteps Waltz (1881). 

Figure 3.  Sheet music for S. Palmer's Fairy Footstep  Waltz, 1881, Library of Congress, 2019.






But, Britain's influence cannot be given exclusive credit for fairy popularity in America.  During the nineteenth century, even born Americans would have heard fairy tales from their immigrant parents or grandparents.  As a result, fairies in American folklore followed traditions of places like Scotland, Ireland, Britain and Wales, as well as Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and many more. 


























Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Into Miry Wilds: Fairies in Victorian Culture

 

Introduction
The word “fairy” is used nineteen times in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre; however, at least fifty references to fairies and fairy folklore are made throughout the novel.   Fairies, remnants of a Celtic pagan past, have haunted the British Isles since before the Anglo-Saxon period into the modern age.  Thought to be nature spirits, these mysterious and supernatural beings were especially paramount to agrarian English life before the Industrial Revolution.  By the dawn of the Victorian period, England was moving away from the agrarian society of old, and into a new age of science, industry, and innovation.  One might presume that the fairy would fade in light of such modern society, but this was far from the case.  Fairies play a special role in English literary history, and particularly in Victorian literature, art and culture.  Fairies often mirrored social anxieties of Victorian England.  Fairies had particular significance in Charlotte Brontë’s life.  In Jane Eyre, the motif of fairies demonstrate Jane as the “Other,” while simultaneously illuminating the fairy tale structure of the novel. 
Victorian Fairies in Literature, Art and Culture
In fact, Victorian literature, art and culture demonstrates a preoccupation or even obsession with fairies and related folklore.  As Sarah Rebecca Wakefield points out in her dissertation, Folklore Naming and Folklore Narrating in British Women’s Fiction, 1750-1880, fairies permeate the English Victorian novel.  This is particularly the case in the works of female writers, such as Sarah Fielding, Ann Radcliffe, Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, Anne Thackeray, and Jean Ingelow.  Additionally, fairy paintings are most closely associated with Victorian artists, such as Richard Dadd and John Anster Fitzgerald.  
Fig. 1. Richard Dadd working on Richard Dadd working on Contradiction: Oberon and Titania (1854/1858). Photograph by Henry Hering. "Richard Dadd." Wikipedia, 30 Oct 2019
Fairies also became a popular subject for Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB) artists, including Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Everett Millais.  Keightley contends that fairies had such prominence in Victorian literature and art because of the strong belief in fairies amongst even the most educated English people (4).
Fig. 2. The Fairy Mythology, by Thomas Keightley, 1st edition, published 1828.  PickClick, 2019.
William John Thomas, another Victorian folklorist, wrote in 1846 that "belief in fairies is by no means extinct in England" (qtd. in Silver 1).  With so much cultural change at rapid pace, Victorians must have felt uneasy about letting go of their agricultural past.  It can be conjectured that the notion of fairies kept Victorians connected with England’s more rustic past.   
Fairies and Victorian Anxiety
            Furthermore, English writers and artists have a history of idealizing an Arcadian, pastoral way of life, especially during those difficult periods of history when escape might be desired.  Fairies, known by innumerable names and thought to bring good or ill luck to all that interact with them (Cavendish 901), certainly represent that Arcadian idyll.  The Victorian period was a time of great success and innovation in England.  Britain was becoming an enormous empire, and by the late nineteenth century, it is commonly known that a quarter of the world’s population was subject to Queen Victoria.  Innovations such as the steam train changed the landscape of England at great pace, and this was a time of much discovery in sciences such as astronomy, biology, and geology.  As fairies were pushed into the sea and underground according to Celtic folklore, the British were pushed away from village life and into cities like London.  Folklorist Carole G. Silver argues that fairies symbolize Victorian anxieties, such as sexual repression, imperialism, and the dramatically changing landscape of England (1).  Wakefield adds that fairies correspond to Victorian English anxieties, especially concerning the “Other” for white, upper class men (19).  Wakefield points out that fairies and folklore often serve as a metaphor for British Imperialism, as well as gender inequities in society (19).  Fairies functioned as an outlet to escape these social anxieties and look back to a simpler time.
Fairies and Charlotte Brontë
            Moreover, fairy lore was of particular importance to Charlotte Brontë’s childhood.  Brontë’s life informed many aspects of Jane Eyre.  Bessie Lee, the maid at Gateshead, fills Jane’s head with stories of fairies that linger in Jane’s mind even in adulthood.  Bessie is most likely a fictionalized version of Tabitha “Tabby” Aykroyd, a servant in the Brontë home.  According to Elizabeth Gaskell’s The Life of Charlotte Brontë, Tabby “had known the ‘bottom,’ or valley, in those primitive days when the fairies frequented the margin of the ‘beck’ on moonlight nights, and had known folk who had seen them . . . ‘It wur the factories as had driven ‘em away,’ she said” (54).  Gaskell explains that Tabby would tell the Brontë children countless tales of the fairy folk, while Charlotte would listen wide-eyed.  This clearly resonates in Jane Eyre.
Fairies and Jane Eyre
Lastly, fairies have great significance in Jane Eyre, and serve as a powerful symbol throughout the book.  As a child, Jane often escapes the sinister Gateshead life by reading Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, a novel filled with fairy-like creatures.  Jane is treated as “Other” during her life at Gateshead, forbidden to associate with her cousins and forced often into isolation.  The fairy motif used in the early part of the novel accentuates Jane’s “Otherness.” 
A significant part of the novel is when Jane first meets Rochester on the road near Thornfield Hall.  Jane imagines the frightening “Gytrash” fairy when she first hears Rochester approaching.  Simultaneously, Rochester imagines that Jane is a fairy in the same scene.  This foreshadows Jane’s somewhat mystical connection with Rochester, as he later identifies her frequently as a member of the “green folk” and constantly half-jokes that she is an elf, sorceress or fairy.  Additionally, this foreshadows the “fairy tale” nature of the entire book. 
Jane represents “Otherness” in the most negative way possible for Aunt Reed at Gateshead, but to Rochester, Jane’s “Otherness” is one of her most powerful appeals.  She is different from any woman he has ever met, completely separate from women like Céline Varens and Blanche Ingram.  Jane functions like a fairy in Rochester’s life, bringing him good fortune, as when she saves him from fire.  However, ill luck seems to inexplicably follow his interactions with her, considering Bertha’s increased aptitude for arson and George Mason’s unwelcome visit. 
In Chapter Sixteen of the novel, Jane becomes convinced that Rochester could never return her love.  In this self-deprecating scene, Jane reflects that if her “secret love” (190) were discovered, she would need to “lead, ignus fatuus-like, into miry wilds, whence there is no extrication” (191).  The word “fairy” is derived from the Latin fatuus, which means “enchanter” (Keightley 7), and in this passage, ignus fatuus means will-o’-the-wisp.  This passage foreshadows Jane’s flight later on in the novel, when she discovers Rochester is already married and runs away into the wilderness. 
Conclusion
            In sum, Victorian writers like Charlotte Brontë were understandably preoccupied with fairies and Celtic folklore.  Fairies represented the village life and pastoral society, which was very much dwindling with all of the advances of the Victorian age.  Reflecting on fairies allowed Victorians to hold onto their past, and not get too carried away by the future.  Fairies have been a constant motif of British literature for the past thousand years, and are unlikely to ever fully fade “into miry wilds.”
Works Cited
Brontë, Charlotte.  Jane Eyre.  1847.  Barnes & Noble Classics, 2003.
Cavendish, Richard, editor.  “Fairies.”  Man, Myth & Magic: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of the
Supernatural, vol. 7, Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 1970, pp. 897-907.
Gaskell, Elizabeth.  The Life of Charlotte Brontë.  1857.  Wordsworth Literary Lives, 2008.
Keightley, Thomas.  The Fairy Mythology.  1828.  George Bell & Sons, York St., Covent
Garden, and New York, 1892.  Project Gutenberg, www.gutenberg.org/files/41006/41006-h/41006-h.htm
Silver, Carole G.  “Chapter One: On the Origins of Fairies.”  Strange and Secret Peoples:
Fairies and Victorian Consciousness. New York & Oxford, 1999.  The New York Times
on the Web, movies2.nytimes.com/books/first/s/silver-strange.html
Wakefield, Sarah Rebecca.  Folklore Naming and Folklore Narrating in British Women’s
Fiction, 1750-1880.  2002.  The University of Texas at Austin, PhD dissertation.  Texas Scholar Works, repositories.lib.utexas.edu/handle/2152/1025.  Accessed 3 October 2019.


Thursday, December 5, 2019

Ignis Fatuus

 While Keightley defines ignis fatuus as "enchanter" (7), the direct Latin translation is "foolish fire."  This phrase is most often used to describe the elusive will o' the wisp.  This is a type of fairy a person thinks they see, but immediately seems to disappear.  It can never be caught.


The will o' the wisp or ignis fatuus is often used metaphorically in Victorian literature.  For example, in Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South,Nicholas Higgins suspects that Mr. Thornton might be secretly in love with Margaret Hale, but considers that it "might be but a will-o'-th'wisp" (332).  That is, the notion might be an illusion or passing fancy that will soon disappear.  Similarly, in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, Jane is mortified that her love for Rochester might just be a silly crush, and that upper class Rochester would never consider her.  She wishes in that moment that she might fade like an “ignus fatuus” (191).

Edward Robert Hughes was a Victorian British painter.  Heavily influenced by his Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood uncle (Osborne), Hughes was entranced by fairies and also chose them for a subject matter.  His most successful painting, Midsummer Eve was painted just after the end of the Victorian era in 1908, and includes a circle of will o' the wisps.


Fig. 1Midsummer Eve, painted by Edward Robert Hughes, 1908.  Wikipedia, 14 Oct. 2019.


The will o’ the wisp is most often seen in swamps and bogs after dark even today.  These quick ghostly flashes of light and color can certainly appear like mystical beings.  There is a scientific explanation, however.  According to Vocabulary.com, ignius fatuus is caused by a chemical reaction due to methane gas and plant decay.  Sadly, these “fairies” really are nothing more than “foolish fire.”  

Below is a modern photograph of such natural phenomenon in India.

Fig. 2.  Photograph of the Aleya Ghost Lights in the marshes of West Bengal, India.  Blue Night Productions, 2017. 
 Below is another modern photograph from the Bengal Swamp. 

Fig. 3. Photograph of ignis fatuus in Bengal Swamp, India.  Blue Night Productions, 2017. 

Works Cited 

Bronte, Charlotte.  Jane Eyre.  1847.  Barnes & Noble Classics, 2003.

Gaskell, Elizabeth.  North and South.  1854.  Edited by Alan Shelston, W.W. Norton & 

Company, 2005.

“Ignis Fatuus.”  Vocabulary, www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/ignis fatuus.  Accessed 15 

Dec. 2019. 

Keightley, Thomas.  The Fairy Mythology.  1828.  George Bell & Sons, York St., Covent
Garden, and New York, 1892.  Project Gutenberg, www.gutenberg.org/files/41006/41006-h/41006-h.htm

Osborne, Victoria Jean. A British Symbolist in Pre-Raphaelite Circles: Edward Robert 

Hughes RWS, 2010.  University of Birmingham, master’s thesis.  University of 

Birmingham, etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/eprint/1465.  Accessed 15 Dec. 2019.    

Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Gothic Architecture and Don't Look Now

Don't Look Now (Dir. Nicholas Roeg, 1973) is one of the most terrifying films I have ever seen.  The ending- the horrible face of knife wielding dwarf- still gives me nightmares.  It is one of the few cases where I find the film adaptation stronger than the story, even though Daphne Du Maurier is one of my very favorite authors.  As John (Donald Sutherland) faces the end of his life, visions of his daughter's death and all the gargoyles he has encountered in his work repairing Gothic cathedrals in Venice flash through his mind, and ultimately connect to the dwarf who murders him.

Given my passion for Gothic literature,  it only makes sense to learn something about the architecture, which is a major motif in both the short story "Don't Look Now" and especially its film adaptation.  I found out that Gothic architecture first surfaced in France around the middle of the twelfth century, especially in the construction of great churches and cathedrals around Paris.  "Key features include the pointed arch, the rib vault, buttresses (especially arched flying buttresses) and window tracery. Edd Morris on his website, Exploring Castles, cites seven characteristics of Gothic architecture: "grand, tall designs, which swept upwards with height and grace," "the flying buttress," "the pointed arch," "the vaulted ceiling," "light, airy interiors," the gargoyles that were designed to terrify medieval peasants into going to church, and finally, "the emphasis upon the decorative style and the ornate."

Over time and across Europe, Gothic developed into a family of related styles" (Victoria and Albert Museum).  While it became less popular in the fifteenth century, Gothic constructions continued to be built in forms of churches, cathedrals, castles and even family homes (Victoria and Albert Museum).  I see elements of Gothic architecture even in modern churches.  Detroit has some wonderful Gothic cathedrals, though they might be a hundred years old or more.  Even St. Jude Catholic Church in Mansfield, while quite modern, has Gothic features, especially use of the pointed arch.

www.pinterest.com/ereaume4274/architecture/

Works Cited
Du Maurier, Daphne. Don't Look Now: Selected Stories of Daphne Du Maurier. New York Review 

     Books Classics, 2008.

Morris, Edd. “The Seven Key Characteristics of Gothic Architecture (Cont).” Exploring Castles

     2018, www.exploring-castles.com/castle_designs/characteristics_gothic_architecture_2/.

Roeg, Nicholas, director. Don't Look Now. D.L.N. Ventures Partnership, 1973.

Victoria and Albert Museum, “Gothic Architecture.” Victoria and Albert Museum, 10 Sept. 2013,

     www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/g/gothic-architecture/.

The Heidelberg Project

The Heidelberg Project is monumentally important to Detroit art, and arguably one of the most unique outdoor art exhibits in the world.  According to The Heidelberg Project website, it began in 1986 when artist Tyree Guyton returned to the street of his childhood, Heidelberg, and found it in ruins.  Houses were falling apart, residents were on drugs, and it looked as though a bomb had been dropped.  Since the riots of the 1960s, the East Side of Detroit had become a realm of impoverishment, addiction, violence and death.  Guyton, his grandfather and neighborhood children decided to make art a solution to the neighborhood's problems.  According to the website, they "began by cleaning up vacant lots on Heidelberg Street. From the refuse they collected, Guyton transformed the street into a massive art environment. Vacant lots literally became 'lots of art' and abandoned houses became 'gigantic art sculptures.' Guyton not only transformed vacant houses and lots, he integrated the street, sidewalks and trees into his mammoth installation and called the work, the Heidelberg Project" (The Heidelberg Project).  He continues to build onto this massive exhibit, insisting that art is medicine and that three decades plus of "renewing the human spirit can now successfully translate into rebuilding the community" (The Heidelberg Project).

One issue that The Heidelberg Project website does not address is that much of the project has been destroyed over the years, by the city of Detroit, vandals and arsonists.  The city has gone in without warning to bulldoze many of Guyton's sculptures, including "The Baby Dollhouse,"  "Your World," "Happy Feet," and "The Canfield House."  Arson claimed "Obstruction of Justice" and several other works in 2013.  The arsonist has still not been brought to justice.  In 2014, The Heidelberg Project faced further vandalism.

While The Heidelberg Project may not stand in its total splendor, it continues to be a monument in Detroit, drawing in countless tourists, artists and art patrons through the years.  It brightens and heals a community once shrouded in dank poverty and pain. 

https://pin.it/whqgusyeijamn7

Works Cited

“Heidelberg Project.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 17 Feb. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki

     /Heidelberg_Project.  

“History.” The Heidelberg Project, www.heidelberg.org/history/.

Finding Vivian Maier

One documentary whose central character has haunted me is Finding Vivian Maier (Dirs. John Maloof and Charlie Siskel, 2013).  Vivian Maier was a nanny who secretly took 100,000 photos in Chicago and New York City during the twentieth century.  She used a camera, and while the camera was never hidden, she was so invisible that people did not even notice she was taking their pictures.  She kept her photography hidden from all who knew her.  As a result of the film, Maier's work is now displayed in galleries and museums.  The New York Times has acclaimed her as “one of America’s more insightful street photographers," according to Maloof's website.  I love the unique way she saw city life, and especially people, through her photographs.  Moreover, I love the way she saw herself through her self-portraits. 

Here is a Pintrest board I made with some of her photos: https://pin.it/ne5gtpjzljf6vj

Works Cited

Maloof, John and Charlie Siskel, directors. Finding Vivian Maier. Ravine Pictures, 2013.

“Official Website of Vivian Maier .” Vivian Maier Photographer, Maloof Collection, Ltd., 2018, 
 
     www.vivianmaier.com/.

Serigraphs and Arthur Secunda

I would really like to take a printmaking class so that I can learn more about this art form.  Serigraph printmaking is especially interesting to me, because of the works of Arthur Secunda.  I first saw Secunda's Voyage at an antique shop, and I lost a small eternity staring at it.  I could not walk away.

https://pin.it/q7j7b3e5b4rwbv

According to Cedar Hill Long House Art Publishing, serigraphy is silk screening.  It is a  "stencil-based printing process in which ink is forced through a fine screen onto the paper beneath."  As a vegan, I was initially concerned that serigraphy would go against my ethical beliefs.  However, Cedar Hill Long House Art Publishing explains that while screens were once made of silk, they are now made of nylon or finely woven polyester.  Serigraphy is the most ancient form of printing and can be traced back to the Song Dynasty (960 - 1279 AD).  It was used in Asia and introduced to the Western world in the late eighteenth century.  However, it did not become a popular art form in the United States or Europe until the 1930s (Cedar Hill Long House Art Publishing).  Andy Warhol is probably the most famous serigraph printer. 

To create a serigraph, a screen is stretched over a frame and areas of the screen are blocked with a stencil.  The screen is placed on top of paper and covered with ink.  A brayer roller is used to spread the ink evenly over the screen.  The ink passes through the open spaces onto the paper.  Cedar Hill Long House Art Publishing explains that as a different screen is used for each color, the final serigraph has a vibrant color density, saturation and texture.  Serigraphs are considered a form of original art, not reproduction.  The original artist and printer must work together to create a serigraph, making sure that the colors and stencils are exactly right.  The original artist must approve each serigraph.  The serigraphs are titled, signed and numbered.  In limited edition serigraphs, the artist must destroy all stencils and trial copies to guarantee the exclusivity of the prints.

Works Cited

“What is Serigraph Printing?” What is Serigraph Printing?, Cedar Hill Long House Art Publishing, 
 
     2018, www.cedarhilllonghouse.ca/blog/what-serigraph-printing.