LEL's Medallion Wafer Poems in Context
A. M. Coleman
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903
The Literary Gazette
William Jerdan was the Editor of the Literary Gazette and a neighbor of the Landons'. His selections for the Gazette were often consistent with current fads, such as excavations of ancient sites in Italy. He was widely disliked, but took LEL under his wing and encouraged her poetry; although she often responded to fads herself, Jerdan's influence on her choice of subjects is not entirely clear |
What is clear is that Landon's poetry situated itself in a textual context largely concerned with the arrangement and interpretation of art for an audience of uncertain expertise. Daniel Riess, in "Laetitia Landon and the Dawn of English Post-Romanticism," describes the enormous popularity of the Gazette, which derived primarily from "its ability to deliver consistently a second-hand, synthesized version of the latest in literature and art" (801). Indeed, its book reviews consisted primarily of long excerpts with attached editorial comments (some of which, in later years, would be written by Landon herself). This represented more affordable access for readers to contemporary writing; art exhibits, plays, and society events were given similar treatment.
Riess argues that "[The Gazette's] pages are evidence of a widespread development in early nineteenth-century England: the gradual replacement of the patronage system of literature and the visual arts by a system in which art functioned as a consumable commercial product" (810). This transition is partially traceable in the ways in which myriad articles in the Gazette both assumed and trained an audience to enact the role of patron in their commercial dealings with art.
Interestingly, questions about appropriation and interpretation raised by the Gazette's practices were also important to the art scene of the time, dominated by Neo-Classicism.
Click "Next" to continue reading about Neo-Classicism and the Medallion Wafers.
Riess argues that "[The Gazette's] pages are evidence of a widespread development in early nineteenth-century England: the gradual replacement of the patronage system of literature and the visual arts by a system in which art functioned as a consumable commercial product" (810). This transition is partially traceable in the ways in which myriad articles in the Gazette both assumed and trained an audience to enact the role of patron in their commercial dealings with art.
Interestingly, questions about appropriation and interpretation raised by the Gazette's practices were also important to the art scene of the time, dominated by Neo-Classicism.
Click "Next" to continue reading about Neo-Classicism and the Medallion Wafers.