University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research: Department of English English, Department of Spring 4-20-2013 Symbolic Capital and the Performativity of Authorship: The Construction and Commodification of the Nineteenth-Century Authorial Celebrity Whitney Helms University of Nebraska-Lincoln Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/englishdiss Part of the Literature in English, British Isles Commons, and the Literature in English, North America Commons Helms, Whitney, "Symbolic Capital and the Performativity of Authorship: The Construction and Commodification of the Nineteenth-Century Authorial Celebrity" (2013). Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research: Department of English. 74. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/englishdiss/74 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the English, Department of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research: Department of English by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. SYMBOLIC CAPITAL AND THE PERFORMATIVITY OF AUTHORSHIP: THE CONSTRUCTION AND COMMODIFICATION OF THE NINETEENTH- CENTURY AUTHORIAL CELEBRITY by Whitney Helms A DISSERTATION Presented to the Faculty of The Graduate College at the University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Major: English Under the Supervision of Professor Laura M. White Lincoln, Nebraska May, 2013 SYMBOLIC CAPITAL AND THE PERFORMATIVITY OF AUTHORSHIP: THE CONSTRUCTION AND COMMODIFICATION OF THE NINETEENTH- CENTURY AUTHORIAL CELEBRITY Whitney Helms, Ph.D. University of Nebraska, 2013 Adviser: Laura M. White Victorian and Antebellum writers were the first literary figures to construct and perform their authorship within the sphere of celebrity. Unlike their Romantic predecessors who endured fame as an unexpected consequence of their popularity, the Victorians and their contemporaries understood celebrity as a condition of authorship. This dissertation takes as its subject the origins and development of symbolic power for authors as it was expressed in the trappings of celebrity and mass culture and argues that authorship became no longer strictly a profession of writing, but rather a performative endeavor that could be presented through diverse commercial markets. Investigating the changing conditions of the production and consumption of literature, this study contends that the public enterprises in which authorship was now being performed were not cheap acts of mass entertainment, as many would claim, but were in fact new forms of cultural capital and legitimate literary labor. Focusing on Charles Dickens, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Wilkie Collins, and Oscar Wilde, four of the greatest nineteenth-century authorial celebrities, this work traces the historical growth of celebrity culture within the authorial profession from the inception of the Victorian and Antebellum periods to the fin de siècle. In doing so, it seeks to understand how each of these writers effectively reconciled publicity and self-commodification with respectability and authorial legitimacy. Incorporating cultural studies, new historicism, gender studies, and the discourse of the recently emerging study of celebrity culture, each chapter is a microhistory that focuses on the respective promotional tours of these authors. Because the tours offered Dickens, Stowe, Collins, and Wilde with a new medium in which to perform their authorial role, they illustrate the ways in which notions of authorship and literary labor were being reconceived in popular culture. Specifically, they show how celebrity and visibility played increasingly major roles in the public reception of these writers’ work within a mass market. Together, the chapters of this dissertation offer detailed discussions on four canonical writers while also providing an analysis of the larger structural, cultural, and social forces that helped to develop and sustain the nineteenth-century authorial celebrity within the literary realm. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation was written under the guidance, support, and encouragement of many professors, colleagues, friends, and loved ones. I extend my gratitude to Laura White, Stephen C. Behrendt, Peter J. Capuano, and Ken Winkle, for encouraging and challenging me, and for always treating my research and ideas with enthusiasm and respect. Thank you, Laura, for offering me invaluable experiences, such as opportunities to participate in faculty seminars and committee searches, both of which informed this project. I am especially grateful to Kathy Johnson, whose generosity is as great as her expertise. Her personal support truly made it possible for me to finish this project. Among the many friends who helped me along the way, I would like to thank Melissa, with whom I had many cathartic conversations about editing, research, and graduate school. Thank you, Melissa, not only for the support that you gave me throughout the years, but also for your friendship. Cooper and Zach, you are my two most beloved friends, and your presence, comfort, and friendship are immeasurable to me. I would not have made it through the years without you two. Sitting outside in the sun, drinking coffee, and writing my dissertation with Zach by my side will always be one of my happiest memories. I am especially grateful for the many walks we would take mid-day in order to recharge, rethink, and simply enjoy. To my parents, Janice and Terry Helms, and to my brother, Preston Helms, I am thankful for your support every step of the way. Thank you, Preston, for encouraging me during the writing of my last chapter. What you do in life is far more challenging and difficult than anything I will ever achieve, and so I thank you for always treating my PhD as though it were an accomplishment worth celebrating. Thank you, mom, for the many conversations over the years and for being my greatest champion. Your humor and positivity—even in the most difficult times—inspire me to be better in every possible way. Dad, I am incredibly grateful to you for never giving up on me. Thank you for your words of encouragement and for the moral and financial support that you have always offered me. I am grateful, too, for our friendship. I hope that I have made you all proud. Finally, this project would not have been possible without Donovan Kosters, whose patience and encouragement never wavered, even in the bleakest of circumstances. Thank you, Donovan, for treating this dissertation as though it were your own. Thank you for supporting me spiritually, emotionally, and financially every minute of every day. I am most grateful for the enthusiasm and humor with which you treat life, and for showing me what it means to be happy. You are my best and greatest friend—always. To you I dedicate this project. v TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Illustrations………………..vi Introduction…………………..…..1-15 Chapter 1………………………....16-55 Performing Authorship in the Celebrity Sphere: Dickens and the Reading Tours Chapter 2………………………....56-102 The (Authorial Celebrity) Woman Question: Harriet Beecher Stowe’s (Domestic, Feminine) Celebrity Chapter 3………………………....103-147 Writing in the Name of ‘King Public’: The Rise and Fall of Wilkie Collins’s Sensational Celebrity Chapter 4………………………....148-193 Oscar Wilde’s Vexed Celebrity: Performing, Commodifying, and Reinventing the Self in Popular Culture Works Cited……………………...194-207 vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1………..64 Image of Caroline Norton [from Fraser’s Magazine 3 (March 1831)] Figure 2..………70 Image of Harriet Martineau [from Fraser’s Magazine 8 (November 1833)] Figure 3………..125 “Caricature Portraits of Eminent Public Men.” [from Once A Week (February 1872)] Figure 4………..132 “The Lyceum Committeeman’s Dream.” [from Harper’s Weekly (1873)] Figures 5……….143 Photograph of Wilkie Collins [from Napoleon Sarony (March 1874)] Figure 6………...143 Photograph of Wilkie Collins [from Napoleon Sarony (March 1874)] Figure 7………...154 Wilde at Oxford. [from the Oscar Wilde Collection (April 1876)]. Courtesy of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, Los Angeles, California. Figure 8………...158 “O.W.” by Linley Sambourne [from Punch (June 1881)] Figure 9………...162 “Oscar Dear!” [from the Oscar Wilde Collection (1882)]. Courtesy of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, Los Angeles, California. Figure 10……….172 Photograph of Oscar Wilde by Napoleon Sarony [from the Oscar Wilde Collection (1882)]. Courtesy of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, Los Angeles, California. Figure 11………..173 A collectible card of Oscar Wilde issued by Napoleon Sarony [from the Oscar Wilde Collection (1882)]. Courtesy of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, Los Angeles, California. Figure 12………..174 Photograph of Oscar Wilde by Napoleon Sarony [from the Oscar Wilde Collection (1882)]. Courtesy of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, Los Angeles, California. vii Figure 13…………176 A sketch of Oscar Wilde by James Edward Kelly [from the Oscar Wilde Collection (1882)]. Courtesy of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, Los Angeles, California. Figure 14………….179 Illustration of Oscar Wilde in The Judge [from the Oscar Wilde Collection (September 1883)]. Courtesy of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, Los Angeles, California. Figure 15…………..180 Illustration of Oscar Wilde in The Entre’acte [from the Oscar Wilde Collection (September