Disorderly Eating in Victorian England by Suzanne Samples a Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Auburn University
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Disorderly Eating in Victorian England by Suzanne Samples A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Auburn University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Auburn, Alabama August 3, 2013 Keywords: Victorian, Disorderly, Anorexia Nervosa, Vegetarian, Vivisection, Foucault Copyright 2013 by Suzanne Samples Approved by Alicia Carroll, Chair, Associate Professor of English Christopher Keirstead, Associate Professor of English Jonathan Bolton, Professor of English Onikia Brown, Assistant Professor of Nutrition, Dietetics, and Hospitality Management Abstract This dissertation investigates the gendered spaces of eating and consumption in Victorian England. In the nineteenth century, Dr. William Gull introduced the medical diagnosis of “anorexia nervosa,” which spawned a discourse of normalized and disorderly eating that strongly influenced the alimentary habits of Victorian citizens and literary characters. As viewed through the post-structuralist theories of Michel Foucault, this dissertation examines how techniques like observation and surveillance granted power and control in the realm of appetite. Works analyzed include Tennyson’s “The Charge of the Light Brigade”; Rossetti’s “Goblin Market” and “In An Artist’s Studio”; Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland; Mary Seacole’s Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands; and, Trollope’s Orley Farm. Analyses of Victorian ephemera, including military journals, cookbooks, and advertisements are also included to show how the Victorian appetite shaped the literature of the time period. ii Acknowledgements I would like to thank my parents, Ted and Jenifer Samples, and my grandmother, Doris Jo Childers, for their support as I wrote and revised and rewrote this dissertation countless times. I am eternally grateful to my husband, Kevin Blicker, and my sister, Sarah Samples, who convinced me put the computer down every now and then to have some fun. Thank you to Sandra Stricklen for her sharp proofreading skills and to Jeanna Blicker for her encouragement. This dissertation would have been impossible to finish without the support of my friends and coworkers: Varonika Hardman, Lacey Pitts, Carrie Holzmeister, Steele Campbell, Eunice Matthews-Bradshaw, Travis Michael, Keith Clavin, Trisha Campbell, and Amanda Morris all provided the emotional support needed to carry this process to the end. A special thanks goes to Nodya Boyko, who reminded me of the Malthusian influence in Hard Times, and Lisa Stuchell, who saw the potential in a once shabby, unfinished dissertation. I would also like to thank the Blue Ridge Rollergirls for keeping me sane throughout this process, and my literary menagerie of “furbabies” past and present—Prufrock, Pip, Gatsby, Oscar, George, and Duffles— for sleeping at my feet while I wrote long into the night. A very special thank you goes to my committee; without the guidance of Alicia Carroll, Chris Keirstead, Jonathan Bolton, and Onikia Brown, this dissertation would not be where it is today. iii Table of Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments........................................................................................................................ iii List of Illustrations ........................................................................................................................ v Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter One .............................................................................................................................. 14 Chapter Two .............................................................................................................................. 59 Chapter Three .......................................................................................................................... 107 Chapter Four ........................................................................................................................... 146 Overall Conclusions ................................................................................................................ 194 Illustrations .............................................................................................................................. 201 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................... 208 End Notes ................................................................................................................................. 223 iv List of Illustrations Figure One ............................................................................................................................... 201 Figure Two ............................................................................................................................... 202 Figure Three ............................................................................................................................. 203 Figure Four ............................................................................................................................... 204 Figure Five ............................................................................................................................... 205 Figure Six ................................................................................................................................. 206 Figure Seven ............................................................................................................................. 207 v Introduction As human beings, consuming food is a basic function of life. However, appetite and consumption often signify cultural choices. Although a study of Victorian appetite may seem like an investigation of a basic phenomenon, a close reading of ephemera and nineteenth-century literature shows that the Victorian appetite operated within a complex structure of environmental and social influence. The alimentary choices of nineteenth-century historical people and fictional characters reveal much concerning the discourse and actions of those living in a period fraught with economic uncertainty and scientific discovery. More often than not, alimentary desires concealed people’s ambition. Hunger, therefore, became both literal and metaphorical. Those who ate frequently came to represent ideal citizens. On the other hand, those who avoided food became associated with self-restraint and asceticism. Although neither extreme existed as a healthy lifestyle, both oversized and diminutive body types became powerful symbols of economic position and personal desire. In addition to the link of appetite to personal ambition, alimentary habits were frequently associated with gender in the nineteenth century; for instance, literature and culture often permitted men to overeat to express power and authority, but women were to avoid food to show their self-restraint. Closely associated with the private, domestic space, women were expected to prepare food but avoid consumption. This distinction also prevented males from having the opportunity to cook and prepare food in the kitchen. However, outliers existed to every expectation of gender and appetite, and alimentary decisions did not exist in a vacuum. Indeed, the Victorian era witnessed men who starved to become spectacles and women who 1 overindulged. But, cultural trends suggested that the overindulgent male and ascetic woman strongly dominated the alimentary discourse of the era. Viewing the Victorian appetite through the lens of Michel Foucault’s social and philosophical theories exhibits how both consumption and appetite control contributed to shifts of order and power in the nineteenth century. Though Foucault’s post-structuralist thought emerged in the twentieth century, the practices that Foucault discusses relate to how Victorians viewed appetite and control. Foucault’s definition of power shifted over time, but his definitions of disciplinary power demonstrate how Victorians used alimentary concepts to both demonstrate and conceal their desires. As Foucault argues in Discipline and Punish, disciplinary power “derives no doubt from the use of simple instruments; hierarchical observation, normalizing judgment and their combination in a procedure that is specific to it, the examination” (170). Appetite functioned as a “simple instrument” that served to normalize eating habits; those who did not eat meals normalized by Victorian culture were seen as rebellious or disorderly (170). Though those who consistently overindulged or avoided food characterized disorderly eating, people often participated in disorderly eating that depended on the social, cultural, or environmental context. Because many believed that a steady diet of beef, corn, and cheese aided fertility, the state saw those who consumed a different diet as a threat to fertility and hence imperialist expansion that remained important to Britain in the nineteenth century and beyond. Foucault’s definition of bio-power also illuminates the consumptive patterns of citizens in Victorian England. Foucault discusses how the body is often described “as a machine,” especially through its “disciplining, the optimization of its capabilities, [and] the exertion of its forces” (History 139). Especially in the