Resources on "The Lady of Shalott"

In college, I wrote three papers on "The Lady of Shalott" - all on different topics and for the same professor. This is a list of articles that I read and found useful in my research on the poem.

 

Cervo, Nathan. "Imitation in "The Lady of Shalott."   The Victorian Newsletter 61 (1982): 17- 19.  This article  discusses the Lady as "an autonomous force of nature, an anima."  It also focuses on comparison of the two versions of the poem.

Chadwick, Joseph. "A Blessing and a Curse: The Poetics of Privacy in Tennyson's "The Lady of Shalott."  Victorian Poetry 24.1 (1986): 13-30.  Chadwick suggests that privacy molds "The Lady of Shalott."   He  argues that matters of privacy structure the Lady's femininity and also determines her fate at the end of the poem.

Colley, Ann C. "The Quest for the 'Nameless' in Tennyson's "The Lady of Shalott." Victorian Poetry 23.4  (1985): 369-378. The article suggests that through the attempt for the nameless character and through the   metaphoric language, the poem has an effect on the reader to desire to become part of the continuous nature of the poem.

Gribble, Jennifer. The Lady of Shalott in the Victorian Novel. London: The Macmillan Press ltd, 1983. The text aims to explore the image "The Lady of Shalott" as seen in later works by Victorian authors.

Hassett, Constance W. and James Richardson. "Looking at Elaine: Keats, Tennyson, and the Directions of    the Poetic Gaze.  "Arthurian Women: a Casebook. Ed. Thelma S. Fenster. New York: Garland, 1996.  287-303.    The article discusses the Lady and Lancelot in terms of masculine/feminine roles. It also brings up the use of different emotions and of the mirror, as well as the significance of the Lady's death.

Hellstrom, Ward. On the Poems of Tennyson. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1972. Sections from this book focus on details and imagery in "The Lady of Shalott" in relation to the Lady and to Lancelot.

Joseph, Gerhard. "The Echo and the Mirror en abÓme in Victorian Poetry." Victorian Poetry 23.4 (1985):  403-412. The author discusses the idea of "en abime," a "fragment of a text that represents in small the structure of the text as a whole." Included in this discussion are the mirror and the reflections in "The Lady of Shalott."

Joseph, Gerhard. "Victorian Weaving: The Alienation of Work into Text in "The Lady of Shalott." The Victorian Newsletter 71 (1987): 7-10. Joseph cites many other commentaries before arguing the existence of the Lady as a fictional text only, not having any underlying intent or significance.

Killham, John. Critical Essays on the Poetry of Tennyson. London: Routledge and Paul, 1960. Selected readings from this book deal with shadows and reality in "The Lady of Shalott" as well as symbolic   coloring.

Kincaid, James R. Tennyson's Major Poems: The Comic and Ironic Patterns. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1975. This work focuses on the development of irony and symbols in Tennyson's works,including "The Lady of Shalott."

Marshall, George O. A Tennyson Handbook. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1963. A section in this book touches on the unnecessary search for the "exact meaning" of "The Lady of Shalott." It also discusses the rhythm and structure of the revised version of the poem as compared to the 1833 version.

Mustard, Wilfred Pirt. Classical Echoes in Tennyson. New York: Macmillan, 1904. An excerpt from this text discusses the idea of two lines in "The Lady of Shalott" existing due to an imitation of a previous text by Virgil.

Plasa, Carl. "'Cracked From Side to Side': Sexual Politics in "The Lady of Shalott." Victorian Poetry 30.3-4 (1992): 247-268. This article discusses the masculine/feminine characteristics that the Lady and Lancelot share in the poem, focusing largely on gaze.

Priestly, F.E.L. Language and Structure in Tennyson's Poems. London: Deutsch, 1973. Sections focus on syntax and rhyme in "The Lady of Shalott" and also on the revisions that appeared in the 1842 version of the poem, and their effect.

Ryals, Clyde de L. Theme and Symbols in Tennyson's Poems to 1850. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1964. Selected portions on "The Lady of Shalott" focus on the difference between outside reality and Shalott and on the change of the Lady's perspective throughout the poem.

Shannon, Edgar F., Jr. "Poetry as Vision: Sight and Insight in "The Lady of Shalott." Victorian Poetry 19.3 (1981): 207-223.

Shaw, William David. Tennyson's Style. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1976. This book tells of finding hints of significance in "Lady of Shalott" by looking at its revisions, its universal tone, and its portrayal of the world of mirrors.

Smith, Elton Edward. The Two Voices: A Tennyson Study. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1964. Sections provide the author's summation of the poem. They discuss the ideas of life and death and of the Lady and other female figure's roles as symbols in Tennyson's poems.

Turner, Paul. Tennyson. Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1976. The book discusses background influences on "The Lady of Shalott" as well as the Lady's connection with art.


 

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