Author(s)

Luo Anyi ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ Department of Foreign Language, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China

Corresponding Author

Luo Anyi

ABSTRACT

This paper proposes that old objects are the crucial metaphor for spinsters' fogyism in Elizabeth Gakell's Cranford. Though capital-resistant and use-based, old objects preserved by Cranfordians primarily support their memory and life philosophy. In this context, old objects are precious collections rather than supplies, referring to their anxiety about materials and social order in the rapidly changing world. On the other hand, around the narrative of the "cracked" objects, Cranfordians (mainly in the case of Matilda Jenkyns) unconsciously connect Cranford to the outside world, breaking down their isolation. The story of Cranford is thus not merely about the disintegrated fogyish utopia but also about old ladies' "peaceful" adoption in the galloping Victorian world.

KEYWORDS

Cranford, Elizabeth Gaskell, Objects, Nostalgia, Victorian Novel

CITE THIS PAPER

Luo Anyi, Cranford's "Cracked" Objects: Perception in Collections. Lecture Notes on Language and Literature (2023) Vol. 6: 39-43. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/langl.2023.060807.

REFERENCES

[1] Elizabeth Gaskell. (1849). The Last Generation in England. Sartain's Union Magazine of Literature and Art, 11, 45-58.
[2] Elizabeth Gaskell. (2018). Cranford. Global Grey.
[3] Francesco Orlando. (2017). Obsolete Objects in the Literary Imagination. Yale UP.
[4] Jeffery Cass. (1999). "The Scrapes, Patches, and Rags of Daily Life": Gaskell's Oriental Other and the Conservation of Cranford. Papers on Language & Literature, 2, 417-33.
[5] Jeffrey A. Auerbach and Peter H. Hoffenberg, editors. (2008). Britain, the Empire, and the World at the Great Exhibition of 1851. Ashgate Pub. Company.
[6] Karsten Piep. (2013). The Nature of Compassionate Orientalism in Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford. CEA Critic, 3, 243-49. 
[7] Sylvi Johansen. (1996). The Great Exhibition of 1851: A Precipice in Time? Victorian Review, 1, 59-64.
[8] Walter Benjamin. The Arcades Project. Translated by Howard Eiland and Kevin McLaughlin. Harvard UP, 1999.

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