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November 11, 2024

Cultural Encounters in George Eliot's “Middlemarch”

Event Series: Cultural Encounters: Books that Have Made a Difference

Virginia Woolf famously called George Eliot's Middlemarch (1871-1872) "one of the few English novels written for grownup people." One of the aspects of the novel that makes it "grownup" is the constant negotiation with conflict and community it presents. The characters consistently grapple with feelings of otherness as they strive to communicate and grow. This does not lead to happy resolutions for all, but it does provide a wealth of cultural encounters; through these Eliot can offer a philosophical commentary on her own society and expose the failures and struggles she sees in her present day.

In this talk, Clare Broome Saunders explored these cultural encounters in Middlemarch, focusing particularly on the ways in which Eliot uses both recent history and medieval hagiography to illustrate her ideas.

This event was sponsored by the Future of the Humanities Project and the Georgetown Humanities Initiative at Georgetown University with Blackfriars Hall, Oxford. It is part of the series Cultural Encounters: Books that Have Made a Difference.

Participants

Clare Broome Saunders

Clare Broome Saunders

Clare Broome Saunders is the senior tutor at Blackfriars Hall, Oxford and a member of the Faculty of English at the University of Oxford. She is one of the United Kingdom's leading contributors in discussions of nineteenth-century medievalism, and her research interests include women's poetry and European travel writers. Her books include Louisa Stuart Costello: A 19th Century Writing Life (2015), Women, Travel Writing, and Truth (2014), and Women Writers and Nineteenth-Century Medievalism (2009). Forthcoming publications include work on the connections between Elizabeth Barrett Browning and William Blake, and a book on political medievalism in the long nineteenth century.

Michael Scott

Michael Scott

Michael Scott is senior dean, fellow of Blackfriars Hall, Oxford, college advisor for postgraduate students, and a member of the Las Casas Institute. He also serves as senior advisor to the president of Georgetown University. Scott previously served as the pro-vice-chancellor at De Montfort University and founding vice-chancellor of Wrexham Glyndwr University, where he is professor emeritus.