It has been a while since my last post, so a few updates on my thesis progress are definitely in order. The last few weeks have been rich, challenging, exciting and exhausting. They have also crucially re-angled my thesis. Here are a few essential new details about my project:
Aug
18
First-Hand Experience: My Research Trip to London
First-Hand Experience I’ve just returned from a fantastic research trip to London so a few updates are in order! This trip was dedicated to providing some important historical background context for my honors thesis on the role of touch, arms and hands in Victorian literature. Going into this trip, I had a few central questions…
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Jul
31
What It Feels Like to Be George Eliot
It’s another month into my research, and I’m excited to report that it’s been a rich time of growth for my project. The last few weeks have been dedicated to exploring haptic interaction in one of my chosen novels; George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss. Hands and arms are mentioned in almost every chapter…
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Jun
03
Open Mind, Open Hands
This week marks my first official week of Honors Thesis research! It has been a week filled with note-taking, reading, re-reading, questions and excitement as I begin this project. I committed this week to deep diving into Peter Capuano’s Changing Hands, the only book dedicated to exploring the role of hands in Victorian literature. Published…
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Apr
13
Unspeakable Sensations: Decoding the Language of Touch in the Nineteenth-Century English Novel
From the gentle offer of a firm arm, to the burning touch of an outstretched hand, to the delicate shape of a wrist, with its “unspeakable suggestions of tenderness,” Victorian prose is saturated by haptic language (Eliot 337). While these corporal details are easy to overlook, they provide fascinating insight into the hidden desires, conflicting…
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