The Figure of Christ in the Long Nineteenth Century

"In this beautifully constructed and consistently stimulating volume, Elizabeth

Ludlow and her contributors do a wonderful job of explaining why Christ was

such an important figure in nineteenth-century thought. The collection is marked

by its rich discussion, cohesive lines of argument, and interdisciplinary range."

-Mark Knight, Professor, Lancaster University, UK

"The Figure of Christ in the Long Nineteenth Century is a fascinating volume that

fills a gap in nineteenth-century scholarship, and restores to us a sense of how

central, how vigorous, and at the same time how contested, the portrayal of

Christ was in this period. From the apocalyptic and visionary writing and art of

Blake, to the vivid re-imaginings of novelists and children's writers, from the

poetry and art of central and established figures like Tennyson and Holman

Hunt, to the radical re-appraisals of the Chartist poets, these studies show how

the imaginative portrayal of Christ became a powerful way of expressing and

symbolising the great themes and controversies of this period. Elizabeth Ludlow

has done a fine job in selecting and editing these essays and her own work in

the field also makes a strong contribution to this volume."

• Malcolm Guite, Chaplain of Girton College, Cambridge, UK and author,

poet and singer-songwriter

This book is an interdisciplinary collection of essays that explores the variety of

ways in which the interface between understanding the figure of Christ, the place of the cross, and the contours of lived experience, was articulated through

the long nineteenth century. Collectively, the chapters respond to the

theological turn in postmodern thought by asking vital questions about the way

in which representations of Christ shape understandings of personhood and of

the divine.

Auteur

Elizabeth Ludlow is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at Anglia Ruskin

University, UK. She is the author of Christina Rossetti and the Bible: Waiting with

the Saints (2014) and a number of journal articles. She is currently working on a

monograph entitled Prayer and the Body in Nineteenth-Century Women's Writing

and a project on nineteenth-century representations of Early Church women.

Résumé

This book is an interdisciplinary collection of essays that explores the variety of

ways in which the interface between understanding the figure of Christ, the

place of the cross, and the contours of lived experience, was articulated through

the long nineteenth century. Collectively, the chapters respond to the

theological turn in postmodern thought by asking vital questions about the way

in which representations of Christ shape understandings of personhood and of

the divine.

Contenu

1. Introduction: Confronting the Figure of Christ in the Long Nineteenth Century: Elizabeth Ludlow.- 2. Blake, Enoch and the Emergence of the Apocalyptic Christ: Christopher Rowland.- 3. As the Eye is formed: Seeing as Christ in Blake's Bartimaeus: Naomi Billingsley.- 4. Fragmented Images of Christ in Romantic Maritime Poetry: Kirsty J. Harris 5. Milton's Christ and Passive Power in Melville and Turner: Laura Fox Gill.- 6. Real visions of real things: The Light of the World, *Incarnation and Popular Culture: Andrew Tate.- 7. Tennyson, Lacan and the Raising of Lazarus: Valerie Purton.- 8. Tractarian Reserve and the Veiled Figure of Christ: Ascension, Mystery, and the Limits of Imagination: Ralph Norman.- 9. The Masculinity of Jesus and the Doctrine of the Real Presence: Carol Engelhardt Herringer.- 10. Considering the Lilies: Christina Rossetti's Ecological Jesus: Emma Mason.- 11. Reimaging Personhood Before the Figure of Christ in the Victorian Early Christian Novel: Elizabeth Ludlow.- 12. The Sanctity of Our Sex: Refiguring the Fallen Woman and the Passion of Christ in Elizabeth Gaskell's *North and South (1854-5): Jo Carruthers.- 13. Our Ordinary Lot: The Cross, the Crutch, and the Theology of Disability in the Novels of Charlotte M. Yonge: Clare Walker Gore.- 14. The Godlike Nazarene and the People-Christ: The Figure of Christ in the Chartist Imaginary: Mike Sanders.- 15. Strauss-sick? Jesus and the Saints in the Church of the Future: Gareth Atkins.- 16. Christly Children, Affect, and the Melodramatic Mode in Late-Victorian Fiction: Leanne Waters.- 17. Jesus and Pan held sway together: Christological Resonances in Edmund Gosse's The Secret of Narcisse: A Romance (1892): Kathy Rees.