"A cowslip from an oxlip and a blackthorn from a white": Ruskin's educational philosophy and "Fors Clavigera".
Item
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Title
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"A cowslip from an oxlip and a blackthorn from a white": Ruskin's educational philosophy and "Fors Clavigera".
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Identifier
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AAI3213153
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identifier
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3213153
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Creator
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Atwood, Sara E.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Donald Stone
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Date
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2006
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Literature, English | Education, Philosophy of
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Abstract
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The connection between John Ruskin's art and social teaching is vital to an understanding of him as an educator, and to an interpretation of his educational theory. Ruskin's vision for educational reform naturally grew out of his own teaching philosophy and was thus inescapably grounded in morality. This dissertation focuses on Ruskin as teacher, and on his greatest educational work, Fors Clavigera. My project examines the various educational roles Ruskin filled and the implications of each, traces the development of his teaching philosophy and style, and analyzes his vision for educational reform. I hold that Fors is Ruskin's manual for educational reform as well as an educational textbook; that it represents the distillation of Ruskin's teaching; that it serves both to set forth Ruskin's ideas of how men should be educated, while simultaneously educating his readers according to these very ideas.;Fors is often considered Ruskin's most difficult work, which may be why, until very recently, it received little critical attention. In 2000 Dinah Birch, who has written compellingly about the strength and importance of Fors, published an edition of the letters. Judith Stoddart examined the political implications of Fors in her 1998 book entitled Ruskin's Culture Wars: Fors Clavigera and the Crisis of Victorian Liberalism. But it was Tim Hilton, in the preface to the first volume of his biography of Ruskin, John Ruskin: The Early Years, who called the most attention to Fors by declaring it Ruskin's masterpiece. Hilton sought, in his biography, to "give Ruskin's longest book a role within English literature, by which I mean a place on the shelves of those who like reading books and talking about them" (Later Years , xi). It is my contention that Fors Clavigera reveals Ruskin at the height of his powers, not only as one of Victorian England's greatest prophets, but as one of her greatest educators.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
