Greek and Roman Classics in the British Struggle for Social Reform

Description

Greek and Roman Classics in the British Struggle for Social Reform presents an original and carefully argued case for the importance of classical ideas, education and self-education in the personal development and activities of British social reformers in the 19th and first six decades of the 20th century. Usually drawn from the lower echelons of the middle class and the most aspirational artisanal and working-class circles, the prominent reformers, revolutionaries, feminists and educationalists of this era, far from regarding education in Latin and Greek as the preserve of the upper classes and inherently reactionary, were consistently inspired by the Mediterranean Classics and contested the monopoly on access to them often claimed by the wealthy and aristocratic elite. The essays, several of which draw on previously neglected and unpublished sources, cover literary figures (Coleridge, the 'Cockney Classicist' poets including Keats, and Dickens), different cultural media (burlesque theatre, body-building, banner art, poetry, journalism and fiction), topics in social reform (the desirability of revolution, suffrage, poverty, social exclusion, women's rights, healthcare, eugenics, town planning, race relations and workers' education), as well as political affiliations and agencies (Chartists, Trade Unions, the WEA, political parties including the Fabians, the Communist Party of Great Britain and the Labour Party). The sixteen essays in this volume restore to the history of British Classics some of the subject's ideological complexity and instrumentality in social progress, a past which is badly needed in the current debates over the future of the discipline. Contributors include specialists in English Literature, History, Classics and Art. Cover page Halftitle page Series page Title page Copyright page Dedication page Contents Illustrations Notes on Contributors Acknowledgements 1 Introduction 2 Radicalism and Gradualism Enmeshed Education, classical texts and working- class culture Autodidacts, mutual education and political consciousness Drama and burlesque: on the page and on the stage Trade union emblems Poetry 3 Coleridge’s Classicized Politics 4 Swinish Classics; or a Conservative Clash with Cockney Culture 5 The Harmless Impudence of a Revolutionary Vulgar declamation Harmless impudence FINALE. MEDEA AND THE CHARACTERS ‘For alms we humbly sue’ 6 Making it Really New 7 Classics and Social Closure Social closure Classics and/or sociology Class and classics in nineteenth- century England 1832 and All Th at Closure in classics Conclusion 8 Hercules as a Symbol of Labour The Continental Hercules British cultural contexts Cultural locations: the Dockers’ Banner (Export Branch) Whose Hercules, which labour? The question of reception Aft erword 9 Vulcan – a ‘Working-class’ God? 10 Nature versus Nurture Causes of decline Rejuvenating the urban masses 11 The Space of Politics A consensus on cities Creating communities, constructing cities Conclusions: Classics, codes and class 12 Classically Educated Women in the Early Independent Labour Party 13 The Greeks of the WEA What was the WEA? Was there classics at the WEA? Where was the classics at the WEA? The rhetoric of classics at the WEA Why were the classicists at the WEA? 14 Christopher Caudwell’s Greek and Latin Classics 15 Staging the Haitian Revolution in London 16 Yesterday’s Men Classical backgrounds and hinterlands Political foregrounds and classical presences Notes Bibliography Index