{"id":529,"date":"2015-03-23T01:59:37","date_gmt":"2015-03-23T01:59:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/?p=529"},"modified":"2016-08-24T15:50:37","modified_gmt":"2016-08-24T15:50:37","slug":"an-institution-of-goblins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/2015\/03\/23\/an-institution-of-goblins\/","title":{"rendered":"An Institution of Goblins"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michel Foucault is relatable not only to our modern day constructions of sexuality, but to the coded language and repression seen in our Victorian texts. Sexuality and power have a complicated and oddly paradoxical connection, especially in the production and reproduction of power, silence, and sexuality. The act of speaking about sex \u201chas the appearance of deliberate transgression\u201d because of the carefully maintained silence and disappearance of all non-normal sexuality (Foucault, 6). This idea that sex is both invisible yet everywhere, and that language or speaking is extremely significant, really reminded me of Goblin Market<\/em>. The fruit, \u201csucked and sucked and sucked the more\u201d, seem to have a strong sexual imagery (Rossetti, 476). If eating the fruit represents a sex act, then it\u2019s even more interesting that they are sold. The goblins become more othered by their vocal and enthusiastic speech about sex. They sell and give voice to what Lizzie and Laura aren\u2019t supposed to even look at- nothing to see, look away from sexuality. While Laura actively goes to the goblins wanting fruit, Lizzie speaks to the goblins- acting against the normal mode of sexuality, silence- but does not want fruit. Foucault also looks for \u201cwho does the speaking, the positions and viewpoints from which they speak, the institutions which prompt people to speak about it and which store and distribute the things that are said\u201d (Foucault, 11). The goblins, as an \u201cinstitution which prompt people to speak about it\u201d, exchange sexuality for some self\/identity\/part of you. The poem seems reinforces this idea with references with Jeanie. Because of her transgression-eating the fruit- her identity becomes synonymous for sexual transgression. This reciprocal and strange process seems to also happen to Laura. In the last stanza of the poem Laura is the only name said and is tied to a warning about sexual transgression. The \u201cinstitution\u201d of goblins prompted speech about sex and seem to make Laura and Jeanie \u2018others\u2019 for eating the fruit. However Lizzie does not feel this same stigma. She speaks about sex, or perhaps enters into the realm of sexuality, but does not eat the fruit. The absence of the sexual act seems to let her identity remain normal or unidentified. I wonder then, why the goblins attacked Lizzie and in the way they did. Does her being covered in fruit translate to the way sexuality is being assigned by society whether you consent or not? I\u2019m not sure where these connection might lead, or if they\u2019re fruitful (pun intended), but I think they\u2019re interesting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michel Foucault is relatable not only to our modern day constructions of sexuality, but to the coded language and repression seen in our Victorian texts. Sexuality and power have a complicated and oddly paradoxical connection, especially in the production and reproduction of power, silence, and sexuality. The act of speaking about sex \u201chas the appearance … Continue reading An Institution of Goblins<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2598,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[111380,108029],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-360-victorian-sexualities","category-spring-2015"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2598"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/victorianlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}