Re-imaginings of myth in the landscapes of Thomas Hardy’s ‘Tess of the D’Urbervilles’ (Part II)

Re-imaginings of myth in the landscapes of Thomas Hardy’s ‘Tess of the D’Urbervilles’ (Part II)

Posted on 23 June 2018 by essexmyth

Myth Reading Group

Thursday 28 June

12.00-1.30pm in Room NTC.2.06

Robert William Allen (member of the Centre for Myth Studies)

We are very pleased to announce that Robert William Allen concludes our discussion of Trees & Forests this term with a session on Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles (Part II)

‘Tess flung herself upon the undergrowth of rustling spear-grass as upon a bed’: Illustration by E. Borough Johnson published in the serial issue of Tess of D’Urbervilles in The Graphic  (1891), in The Victorian Web

In this meeting of the Myth Reading Group, we will continue our discussion of the ways in which Hardy incorporates elements of myth into his novel, paying particular attention to his figuration of landscape.

In Part I, we considered selected extracts from Tess of the D’Urbervilles [final part of Ch.X (from ‘Tess was indignant…’) & Ch. XI], Ovid’s account of the rape of Proserpina in the Metamorphoses (Book V, ll. 512 – 615), and Ted Hughes’ version of the passage in his Tales from Ovid [pp. 56-57]. Further reading from Hardy’s novel included Chapters XLVII& XLVIII.

In Part II, we will consider extracts from D. H. Lawrence’s ‘The Lost Girl’ [full text on the Project Gutenberg] and ‘Bavarian Gentians’ [available on the Representative Poetry Online site].

ALL WELCOME