One of the challenges of this project – and one of my major anxieties about it – is in defining and setting parameters on what exactly “the construction of knowledge” is and what it entails. Here are some reflections on how we might we slice and dice nineteenth-century print culture.
Week 5: Why it all changed in the 1840s
I’ve spent a bit of time this week thinking about historical periods – when and how should we draw the lines? – and what chronological markers might be useful for understanding nineteenth-century British periodicals. It makes sense to me to treat the 1820s and the 1830s separately from what came after (though overlaps of course … Continue reading Week 5: Why it all changed in the 1840s
Week 4: Never too early to start drafting, right? Right?
An undisclosed number of moons ago, at the very beginning of my PhD – literally at the induction welcome event in the first week - one of my supervisors caught me totally off guard by casually asking for “2000 words by next Friday”. “2000 words on what? I haven’t started yet!” “Anything.” I was not very happy about this answer but I dutifully set about writing...something...
Week 3: “Are we to be amused by the piping of a penny trumpet?” Useful knowledge and class warfare in the 1830s
This week I consider the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (SDUK) alongside the Poor Man's Guardian, a radical unstamped newspaper.
Week 2: “creditable” cheap literature
This week I take a look at the titles the Athenaeum listed as "creditable”, unobjectionable cheap literature...
Week 1: Steam production and heads full of steam
The first official full week of the AHRC Fellowship is now coming to an end and I feel like I’m just beginning to get into the rhythm of being a full-time researcher. I’m intending to write weekly blog posts, partly as a way to get my thoughts in order, partly as a way to remind myself that no matter what it may sometimes feel like progress has indeed been made, and partly because archival research is bound to turn up some interesting stuff that is worth sharing outside of formal publications. So, what have I been up to this week? What fresh insights from the archives? Read on for Chartism, the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, and a grumpy Yorkshire vicar...
Why “Thinking Machines”?
The title “Thinking Machines” takes its cue from Victorian writers commenting on their own print culture, but it's also semantically diverse, opening up a range of possible interpretive stances...
New Project Alert – “Thinking Machines”
I’m very excited to say that I’ve just been awarded an AHRC Research Development and Engagement Fellowship for a new project entitled Thinking Machines: Constructing Knowledge in the Victorian Periodical Press. For the next two years this project will be my main research focus and the feeling of being at the start of a major project – the first time since I started my PhD back in 2011! – is a little daunting. It’s also the main reason for creating this site – hopefully it will help me share the project itself, but also it will provide a place for thinking things through and sharing ideas as they develop. It’s a bit weird writing about something at the start when you have a lot of questions and not so many answers (yet), but here goes… let me tell you about Thinking Machines!
Writing Victorians 