Graduation Date
5-2017
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department or Program
Graduate Humanities
Department or Program Chair
Joan Baranow, PhD
First Reader
Leslie Ross, PhD
Second Reader
Thomas Burke, MFA
Abstract
Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) the poet and Julia Margaret Cameron the photographer (1813-1879) worked collaboratively on the Idylls of the King; a work of epic poetry that Tennyson wrote about the legends of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. His re-envisioned tales were cautionary and provided guidelines as to how women should behave or face the consequences of causing the downfall of society. Victorian society was in a precarious situation as women were expected to behave in certain ways, but at the same time they were finding their voices and beginning to speak out about patriarchal society and their own displeasure at how they had been treated. At the same time that Tennyson was writing about how women should behave and remain in their expected social roles, he chose a woman to photograph and illustrate his work. Although there is a certain irony in this collaboration given the times they lived in, things were changing and women were beginning to gain a voice.
Included in
Literature in English, British Isles Commons, Photography Commons, Women's Studies Commons