This groundbreaking study reveals how the Rossetti siblings revolutionized Victorian conceptions of selfhood through a sophisticated dialectic that transcends conventional binaries—matter and spirit, sacred and secular love, strength and vulnerability, divinity and depravity. While their contemporaries remained trapped in Victorian doubleness, Dante Gabriel and Christina Rossetti boldly negotiated these opposing forces, creating a radical new synthesis that challenges our understanding of 19th-century thought.Their extraordinary fusion of matter and spirit—a deliberate departure from Victorian orthodoxy—resurrects a profound intellectual tradition extending from Renaissance humanism through Romantic idealism. This intellectual courage manifests most brilliantly in their pioneering integration of word and image: for Christina, this synthesis illuminates aesthetic-religious relationships through liturgical symbolism and ceremonial ritual; for Dante Gabriel, it achieves what Walter Pater recognized as the rare marriage of aesthetic brilliance with 'deep, philosophic reflectiveness.'This comprehensive investigation penetrates the siblings' dialectical philosophies to expose unexpected affinities and crucial differences, establishing vital connections between their poetic principles and artistic innovations across all creative phases. The result is not merely a reinterpretation of the Rossettis, but a fundamental reconsideration of Victorian intellectual history and its enduring influence on modern consciousness.
This groundbreaking study reveals how the Rossetti siblings revolutionized Victorian conceptions of selfhood through a sophisticated dialectic that transcends conventional binaries—matter and spirit, sacred and secular love, strength and vulnerability, divinity and depravity.
Introduction
Chapter 1 Self-Renunciation and Self-Fulfilment: Interplay
of Sacred Love and Secular Love in Monna Innominata and Later Life 1.1 Monna
Innominata 1.1.1 First macro-quatrain: a quest for the beloved 1.1.2 Second
macro-quatrain: agency via religion versus risk of idolatry 1.1.3
Macro-sestet: forgoing her beloved & retaining her love 1.2 Later Life 1.2.1
First macro-octave: pleas for grace & quest for agency 1.2.2 Second
macro-octave: beginning to assume Gods vision 1.2.3 First macro-sestet:
through the seasons of human life 1.2.4 Second macro-sestet: dynamics among
life, death, and love
Chapter 2 Fluidity of Life, Love and Death in The House
of Life 2.1 The Religion of Love 2.2 Confronting Death 2.3 Ambiguity of the
Sirens and the Law of the Monochord 2.4 A Summary and a Comparison
Chapter 3
The Aesthetics of Renunciation in Christina Rossettis Double Works 3.1
Sing-Song: Calls for a Shift of Attention 3.2 Speaking Likenesses: Dynamics
Between the Weak and the Strong 3.3 Goblin Market and Christinas
Illustrations for The Christian Year: Siblinghood and Selfhood
Chapter 4
Passion and Passivity: Fluidity of Identity in Dante Gabriel Rossettis
Double Works 4.1 Heavenly Lady or Femme Fatale 4.2 Transformations of Lady
Lilith and Mary Magdalene 4.3 Modern Femme Fatale 4.4 The Constellation of
Helen, Proserpine, and Pandora 4.5 A Summary and a Comparison Conclusio
Charlotte Xiaoqian Cai has degrees from Shanghai International Studies University (BA), the University of Leicester (MA), and the Chinese University of Hong Kong (PhD).
