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Representations of Feminist and Lesbian Consciousness and the Use

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Representations of Feminist and Lesbian Consciousness and the Use Representations of Feminist and Lesbian Consciousness and the Use of Subversive Strategies in Selected Poetry of Isabella Jane Blagden (1817-1873) Sharon Rosamunde Gordon A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Edinburgh Napier University, for the award of Doctor of Philosophy. June 2016 i Abstract The purpose of this study is to recover and revise the contribution made to women's writing by the English minor novelist and poet, Isabella Jane Blagden (1817-1873), who was the centrifugal force of an influential literary and artistic milieu in Italy, in the mid-nineteenth-century. Key figures in the group were the poets Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning and the American writer, Henry James. This study is a revisionist critique which questions the prevailing masculine discourse and conventions which oppressed women in terms of their sexual, political and economic freedom. This, therefore, fits into the Victorian phenomenon of women poets finding their own space and expression against patriarchal norms. My focus on Blagden's poetry, with its scope for liminal/subliminal suggestiveness, enables an exploration of her subversive and transgressive feminist-lesbian poetics. Recent contributions from feminist and lesbian theorists and critics, are examined in order to establish a feminist-lesbian interpretation of gender, sexuality, subversion and transgression. A secondary consideration is Blagden's role in the aesthetic consciousness of others and her apparent inspirational position at the centre of the creative groups of intellectual emigrės in her circle. While most of her friends and acquaintances had a public persona, Blagden did not, and her work has received little discussion and debate. In order to ensure her significance as a feminist-lesbian poet and Muse, this study will focus on her contribution to nineteenth-century women's poetry. As a contribution to literary scholarship my aim is to bring Blagden in from the margins as a poet of non-canonical status, to one whose status is placed firmly within the continuous literary tradition of radical feminist-lesbian women writers in the nineteenth century. ii Acknowledgements My special thanks go to my supervisors Professor Linda Dryden, Professor Bashabi Fraser and Dr Anne Schwan for their unstinting support, scholarly expertise and guidance. My thanks also go to Dr Katrina Burton for her encouragement at each stage of this thesis. I am deeply indebted to Philip Kelley, editor of Florentine Friends, for his generous gift of this volume of correspondence between the Brownings and Isabella Blagden. My sincere thanks also go to Dr Julia Bolton Holloway, custodian of the English Cemetery in Florence, and to La Biblioteca Nazionale, Firenze. I am also indebted to Marian Kirton, Subject Librarian at Edinburgh Napier University; the staff of the National Library of Scotland; Hannah Westall, Girton College, Cambridge; Jennifer Borderud, Armstrong Browning Library at the University of Waco, Texas; the British Library; the Provost and Fellows of Eton College; Knebworth House Archive, Hertfordshire; the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. and the Women's Library at the London School of Economics. For their technical expertise and considerable patience, I am most grateful to Donald Cowan and Giuseppe Magrone. And last, but not least, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my husband, Michael, and to my daughter, Natasha, for their unfailing support and encouragement throughout my research. iii Table of Contents Abstract ii Acknowledgements iii Table of Contents iv Table of Figures vii Biographical Timeline ix Introduction 1 Chapter One: Isabella Blagden in Context 16 Overview 16 Part 1: Biographical Context 17 Anglo-Indian-Spanish Heritage 17 The Indian Brackens 22 The London Years 25 Florence and Rome: Influences 26 Death and Legacy 32 Part 2: Professional Context 37 The 'Poetess' Tradition 39 New Dimensions in Women's Poetry 44 Major Influences and Positive Criticisms 47 Conclusion 52 Chapter Two: Feminist Influences: Social Context and Social Critiques in Isabella Blagden's Poetry 54 Overview 54 Part 1: Influential Women in Blagden's Milieu 55 The Education Question 57 The Unmarried/Married Woman Question 60 'The Angel in the House' 62 Two 'Fallen' Sisters 66 Prostitution: Cause and Effect 69 Rescue and Rehabilitation 72 iv Part 2: The Story of Two Lives: A Social Critique 76 The Seduced Woman Iconography 81 The Distressed Needlewoman 85 The Workhouse: Prisons for the Poor 89 The Stigmatised Unmarried Mother 94 Beyond Despair: Resignation and Redemption 98 Conclusion 105 Chapter Three: Isabella Blagden: Feminist Consciousness 107 Overview 107 'The Wrecked Life': Innocent Victim of Sexual Predation 109 The Enigmatic Woman: Representations in Art and Tales of Terror 112 The Sister Stars in Greek Legend 123 The Supernatural Phenomena of Mesmerism 127 Predation and Power 130 Delusive Madness 134 The Female Life-in-Death Figure 137 Transgression, Perversion and Obsession 140 The Counter-Culture Heroine 142 Letters and Observations 145 Poetic Contributions in Honour of George Sand 148 Conclusion 155 Chapter Four: Italian Influences 157 Overview 157 Il Risorgimento (The Resurgence) 159 Bellosguardo and the Salon Tradition 167 Blagden: Amanuensis and Muse 173 Bellosguardo: A Metaphor for Literary Inspiration 175 Bellosguardo: An Imaginary Utopia 183 Reminiscences and Enduring Influences 191 Conclusion 193 v Chapter Five: Isabella Blagden: Lesbian Consciousness 195 Overview 195 Lesbian Consciousness: A Context 198 Rome Lesbos 202 Transgressive Personal Powers 216 'Women Alone Stir My Imagination' 218 Literary Allusions to Greek Mythology 226 Alternative Spaces 232 Desiring Women: Lovers, Mothers, Sisters 236 The Absent Mother-Figure 243 Unrestrained Sensuousness 245 Conclusion 250 Afterword 252 Bibliography 257 Appendix 1 275 Poems Appendix 278 vi Table of Figures Fig. 1 Isabella Blagden. (Courtesy of Boston Public Library). xiii Fig. 2 (a) Elizabeth Barrett Browning with her son, Pen, in Rome, 1860. (Reproduced by permission of the Provost and Fellows, Eton College). 27 Fig. 2 (b) Robert Browning in Rome, 1860. (Courtesy of the Armstrong Library, Baylor University, Waco, Texas). 27 Fig. 3 Blagden's grave in the English Cemetery, Florence. (Author's own photograph). 33 Fig. 4 Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa (1503-06). (Courtesy of Dr. Emil Krén, editor, Web Gallery of Art). 113 Fig. 5 Villa Brichieri, Bellosguardo. (Courtesy of the Armstrong Browning Library, Baylor University, Waco, Texas). 168 Fig. 6 Villa Brichieri, Bellosguardo. (Courtesy of the Armstrong Browning Library, Baylor University, Waco, Texas). 169 Fig. 7 Isabella Blagden's salon at the Villa Castellani, Bellosguardo. (Courtesy of the Armstrong Browning Library, Baylor University, Waco, Texas). 169 Fig. 8 Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton, aged 18. (Courtesy of Knebworth House Archive, Hertfordshire). 178 Fig. 9 Villa Castellani, Bellosguardo, painted by Frank Duveneck (American, 1848-1919). Villa Castellani, 1887, Oil on canvas, 24 15/16 x 30 in. (Courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum, Healy Purchase Fund B, 78 176.New York). 192 Fig. 10 Isabella Blagden's Dining Room at the Villa Castellani, Bellosguardo. (Courtesy of the Armstrong Browning Library, Baylor University, Waco, Texas). 193 Fig. 11 Charlotte Cushman. (Courtesy of the Harvard Theatre Collection, TCS 2, Houghton Library, Harvard College, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA). 202 Fig. 12 Charlotte Cushman with Matilda Hays. (Courtesy of the Harvard Theatre Collection, TCS 2, Houghton Library, Harvard College, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA). 203 Fig. 13 Harriet Hosmer. (Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, Object no. NPG. 84.150, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC). 207 vii Fig. 14 Charlotte Cushman with Emma Stebbins. (Courtesy of the Harvard Theatre Collection, TCS 2, Houghton Library, Harvard College, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA). 211 Fig. 15 Giorgione's Sleeping Venus (c1510). (Courtesy of Dr Emil Krén, editor, Web Gallery of Art). 246 viii Biographical Timeline 1817 Isabella Jane Blagden, born in Calcutta, India on June 30. c.1840 Educated in London at Louisa Agassiz's Ladies School, 2 Allsop Terrace, near Regent's Park, London, a school for the daughters of diplomats and merchants. 1842 ''What is Sir Lytton Bulwer's 'Zanoni?' '', first poem to be published in The Metropolitan, in July. Poem sent to Lytton giving the school address. 1843 'To Sir E.L. Bulwer, on his ''Last of the Barons'', a review, published in The Metropolitan, in April. 1850 Arrives in Florence in March and meets the Brownings in the same month. Living at the Villa Moutier, near the Poggio Imperiale, about one kilometre from the Porta Romana, Florence. Spends winter in Rome. Father dies in Calcutta on December 10. 1850-51 Spends winter in Rome with her school friend, Charlotte Agassiz, residing at 18 Via de'Prefetti. 1852 In Rome and meets American actress Charlotte Cushman. Cares for her invalid cousin, Louisa Alexander, in Florence. Visits England. 1853 Visits Rome in August, residing at 13 Via Gregoriana, on the second floor until ?October. 1854 In Rome during early part of the year. Later went to England. Returns to Florence. 1855 Louisa Alexander leaves Florence for India. Blagden leaves Florence with the Brownings for Marseilles, then goes on to Paris by train. Later visits England. 1856 In January meets the Brownings in Paris.''Words'', by an English Lady, and ''La Tenentina', by J.T.Gozes, both reviews, published in Godey's Lady's Book
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