Proserpina Unbound

John Ruskin, Maria La Touche, and Victorian Floriculture

Datos Bibliográficos

ID12411752
AutoresLindsay Wells (0000-0001-7581-7291, autor de correspondencia)
Año2020
Volumen48
Número4
Páginas633-663
Fecha de publicación2020-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaVictorian Literature and Culture (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1060-1503 • E-ISSN: 1470-1553
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s1060150319000184
OpenAlexW3110218353
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas55

Filled with caustic statements on artificial plant breeding and florist flowers, John Ruskin's botanical essay collection, Proserpina (1875–86), advances a cogent argument against commercial floriculture and, by extension, the commodification of vegetal life. However, the eco-political stakes of this text have received limited attention. Past studies have primarily interpreted Proserpina as a testament to Ruskin's disquiet about Darwinism and as a memorial to his late love, Rose La Touche. In this article, I argue that beneath these scientific and personal imperatives, Proserpina urges readers to resist the consumption of floral commodities engineered by Victorian nurserymen and florists. My reading draws together the history of nineteenth-century flower breeding with recent inquiries from the field of critical plant studies in order to illuminate how Ruskin's botanical prose dovetails with present-day debates on vegetal ethics. Flower-breeding motifs figure prominently in a series of letters written for Proserpina by Rose's mother, Maria La Touche, whose contributions to this book have long been overlooked. Analyzing Proserpina 's floricultural subtext will not only recover La Touche's letters from the shadow of Ruskin's love life but also underscore an unexplored facet of Ruskin's antipathy toward Darwin, who celebrated florist flowers in his own botanical writings

Art · Art history · Biology · Darwinism · Floriculture · Literature · Political science · Politics · Historical and Literary Studies · Historical Art and Culture Studies · Law · Philosophy · Visual Culture and Art Theory · Horticulture