Victorian Paper Art and Craft: Writers and Their Materials

In nineteenth-century Britain, authors used writing materials for inspiration and creative composition, reshaping the sensory history of working on and with paper. Activities included Charlotte Brontë composing poems and doodling in school books, George Eliot recording writing ideas on her blotter, Elizabeth Barrett Browning sewing paper to paper to edit her poems, and Jane Austen employing straight pins to cut and paste. Albums provided a playful space to collect and produce text-and-collage gifts, while notebooks and commonplace books were vital to Eliot, Michael Field, and Emily Brontë. Writers experimented with crafts and needlework to compose text without paper and ink, most notably in the case of samplers. The edge of the page, the width of the margin, and the covers of the book were limiting factors, but also provocations to push on further, be radical.

Format: Hardback
Length: 240 pages
Publication date: 20 October 2022
Publisher: Oxford University Press

In the nineteenth century, British authors embraced a rich tapestry of materials for inspiration and creative composition, reshaping the sensory history of working with paper. From Charlotte Brontë's poetic doodles in school books to George Eliot's meticulous recording of writing ideas on her blotter, Elizabeth Barrett Browning's intricate paper-to-paper editing, and Jane Austen's unconventional use of straight pins for cutting and pasting, these writers explored a myriad of activities that defied conventional boundaries. Albums became a playful platform for collecting and crafting text-and-collage gifts, offering an alternative to print culture's impersonal nature. Notebooks and commonplace books played a pivotal role in Eliot, Michael Field, and Emily Brontë's writing processes, serving as vessels for their ideas and reflections. Moreover, writers ventured into unconventional realms of creativity, employing crafts and needlework to compose text without the traditional constraints of paper and ink. Notably, samplers emerged as a testament to this exploration, where intricate designs and patterns were woven into narratives, blurring the lines between art and literature. The significance of what writing and drawing occurred on—including bibles, sewing patterns, and walls—was deeply intertwined with the themes of the work, serving as both a source of inspiration and a generative force. While this expansive field of meanings was shared by the Victorians, the writers examined in this book went beyond their self-reflexive contemporaries in their audacious dismantling, remaking, miniaturizing, encrypting, reusing, and transforming of textual and material things. The boundaries of the page, the width of the margin, and the book's covers became both limiting factors and provocations, pushing them to embrace radical experimentation and push the boundaries of artistic expression.

Weight: 412g
Dimension: 222 x 142 x 19 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780198858799