Victorian Literature and Art

Overview

What you will study

The relationship between literature and art was a crucial aspect of Victorian culture. Examples include: the tremendous influence of the writer and art critic John Ruskin; the interdependence of art and literature in the Pre-Raphaelite and Decadent movements; and the frequent representation of works of art in literary texts, and vice versa.

The Victorian Literature and Art course offered by University of Oxford will coincide with the exhibition ‘Colour Revolution’, taking place in the nearby Ashmolean Museum, which looks at the development of colour technology and art in the Victorian period. Colour is one of the topics we will address in the day school.

We will also consider how artists and writers of the time engaged with the natural world, often inspired by the ideas of John Ruskin, and how the act of reading, particularly by women, itself became an important subject of Victorian art. The event will conclude with a roundtable discussion, and you will be given plenty of opportunity throughout the day to ask questions of the speakers.