This year's C19 studies reading group theme is Green Spaces, and we couldn't be more excited! As usual, the reading group meets once a month to discuss texts selected by each month's group lead, and the members talk about the selections over cake and coffee at the friendly Neighbourhood café, right above Hanover Street. There
have been two sessions so far.
The November meeting focused on Green spaces in Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) and a very interesting exploration of the relationship between nature and art, especially in relation to works like Wilde's The Decay of Lying (1891). In detail, we discussed the way 'art for art's sake' is expressed in both texts, and in what respects both nature and life reflect art in both contexts. We also connected this to the quite popular Romantic notion of nature as an independent, deified entity that conditions perception and raises poetic and artistic consciousness, and how this is contested in Wilde's texts and perception of nature and art.
Our second meeting took place in December 2019, and discussions revolved around the broadly defined concepts of ‘natural’ and ‘supernatural’. Selected texts included Dickens’ Oliver Twist (1837), which foregrounds nature's pedagogical qualities. One of the key arguments was that proper/ necessary environmental settings of harmony and tranquillity, as described by Dickens, not only aid the student in learning, but also help the teacher in teaching. H. P. Lovecraft’s presentation of nature in 'The Silver Key' (1929), on the other hand, reflects an image of a utopian world, different and inaccessible by humans because of human mental incapacity. Hence, Lovecraft sets a boundary to the region which is accessible for humans as ‘natural’. Anything beyond that becomes the ‘supernatural’. Lovecraft’s definition of the ‘natural’ was also compared with the definition of nature in Dorian Gray. The comparison brought similarities such as accessibility of nature to the human mind in finding solace amidst external problems. Furthermore, the concept of the ‘natural’ was associated with beauty that provided a mere touch-and-go to Edmund Burke’s philosophy in his essay on the sublime and beautiful.
Stay tuned for more, since our January meeting is approaching! We are meeting on Friday the 31st of January 2020 at the Neighbourhood café for a fruitful discussion on nature in the poetry of Romantic women writers! Key writers will be Mary Robinson and Charlotte Smith, and we will talk about how multifarious perceptions of nature are also informed by a more Gothic aspect that continually varies the dynamic of the texts! Check out our twitter page for more info, and we hope to see you all there!
