The Nineteenth-Century Research Group

Promoting an interdisciplinary approach to the nineteenth century at the University of Lincoln

Month: August 2015

24th Sept, “Before ‘Jerusalem’: Blake’s stanzas from Milton”

Our first session, on 24th Sept, will be as follows:

 

Jerusalem_Plate_100

 

Professor Jason Whittaker (English and Journalism) ,

 

“Before ‘Jerusalem’: Blake’s stanzas from Milton, 1863 to 1915”

 

When Hubert Parry set Blake’s stanzas from the epic poem Milton to music in 1916, he created one of the most famous hymns of the twentieth century which, in more recent years, has often been mooted as an alternative English national anthem to God Save the Queen. By the time of Blake’s death the stanzas themselves were virtually forgotten. Alexander Gilchrist first brought them to a wider audience when he included the lines as an example of the “singular preface” and the lyric was reprinted at various points during Victorian and Edwardian periods. It was even set to music before Parry turned his hand to it, Walford Davis composing a version for the Morecombe Festival in 1908. As such, this talk will explore how lines beginning “And did those feet…”, detached from Blake’s original and obscure mythology and set against a background of British Israelitism and increasing imperial confidence, could be transformed into a proto-national hymn.

This session will take place at 5pm on Thursday 24th Sept in room MC0024, which is on the ground floor of the MHT Building. The MHT is number 2 on this map:

 

Campus-Map-Jan-2015

Meeting dates, 2015-16

First of all, a quick announcement: as many of you know, Hannah Field is leaving the University and thus the C19 Group. I would like to thank Hannah for her amazing contribution over the last two years. We will try to struggle on without her.

Second, as agreed collectively, we are trying out a 5pm Thursday slot for this year. We can keep this decision under review and change it the following year if needs be, but hopefully this new slot will lead to fewer clashes with meetings and other research seminars. Here are the C19 meeting dates for next year:

 

Save the date

 

Semester A

 

Week 1 (Thurs 24th Sept)

 

Week 5 (Thurs 22nd Oct)

 

Week 9 (Thurs 19th Nov)

 

Semester B

 

Week 2 (Thurs 28th Jan)

 

Week 6 (Thurs 25th Feb):

 

Week 9 (Thurs 17th March)

 

Week 11 (Thurs 14th April)

 

All meetings are 5pm in MC0024.

The Gaskell Journal Joan Leach Memorial Graduate Student Essay Prize

gaskell

The Gaskell Journal invites submissions from PhD and MA students for its biennial Graduate Student Essay Competition. The winning essay (6,000–7,000 words) will offer an original contribution to Gaskell studies, and will be published in The Gaskell Journal. Its author will receive £200 from the Gaskell Society, and a complimentary copy of the journal. Essays will be judged by members of the Gaskell Journal Editorial Board, with the final decision being made from a shortlist by a leading scholar in Gaskell studies.

Submissions should be sent to the journal’s editor (and founding member of the Nineteenth-Century Research Group at Lincoln), Dr Rebecca Styler <rstyler@lincoln.ac.uk>, by the deadline of 10 February 2016. (Please note the amended deadline.)

Further details are available here.