{"id":1907,"date":"2018-01-18T13:19:35","date_gmt":"2018-01-18T13:19:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/?p=1907"},"modified":"2018-01-18T13:19:35","modified_gmt":"2018-01-18T13:19:35","slug":"stephen-copley-research-report-the-lewis-walpole-library","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/?p=1907","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Copley Research Report: The Lewis Walpole Library"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following report details research by Lauren Nixon, who visited the University of Yale supported by a BARS Stephen Copley Bursary.<\/em><\/p>\n

Stephen Copley Research Award Report<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lauren Nixon: Researching Henry Seymour Conway at the Lewis Walpole Library<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Stephen Copley Research Award funded my visit to the Lewis Walpole Library<\/a>, part of the University of Yale, which houses a large collection of materials relating to Horace Walpole (1717-1797) as well as an extensive array of rare books, prints and paintings. Thanks to the award I was able to spend a week in November 2017 studying the correspondence of Henry Seymour Conway (1721-1795), a cousin and friend of Horace Walpole and a British Army Officer who served during the Seven Years War (1756-1763). This research will form a part of my PhD thesis, \u2018Conflicting Masculinities: The figure of the soldier in Gothic literature, 1764-1826\u2019, and I hope to have the opportunity to present a snapshot of my findings at a conference this year.<\/p>\n

Though significant critical work on exploring gender constructs within the early Gothic novel has been undertaken, very little has focused upon the military and the figure of the soldier. Yet the soldier, be it in the guise of an ancient knight, clansman or chevalier, appears frequently throughout the Gothic fiction of the period. My thesis analyses the ways in which Gothic writers employed the soldier and the military to redefine and reconsider masculinity, and charts shifting perceptions and presentations of the military in the eighteenth century. \u00a0As part of this research I am interested in the state of the military and social perception of the soldier during and in the aftermath of the Seven Years War, a conflict which Britain emerged victorious but which would have drastic lasting financial strains. Despite being heralded as heroes during the Seven Years War, the years after saw the private soldier turned loose without pay. Left to poverty and vagrancy, the British soldier of the 1770\u2019s and 1780\u2019s was far from a champion of national vigour and virtue \u2013 that is, until the renewed threat of conflict with France after the French Revolution.<\/p>\n

In addition to the Gothic novels of authors such as Walpole, Ann Radcliffe, Regina Maria Roche and Mary Shelley, my research also incorporates a number of primary materials such as songs, pamphlets and speeches. During my week in the Lewis Walpole Library, I was able to further this study by analysing Henry Seymour Conway\u2019s correspondence with his brother Francis Seymour Conway, 1st<\/sup> Marquess of Hertford (1718-1794) and three books of his military correspondence charting his service in Europe during the Seven Years War. This not only provided enlightening and intriguing insights into the military profession and the notion of the soldier\u2019s duty during the eighteenth century from unpublished, understudied texts, but also indicated a crucial connection to the Gothic. Walpole and Conway were not just cousins, but close friends and frequent correspondents. In 1764, when Conway was abruptly dismissed from both parliament and his military command after speaking out against the Government on the John Wilkes controversy, Walpole supported Conway both financially and publically. As the Castle of Otranto<\/em> was published later that same year, I believe there is an argument to be made for Conway\u2019s identity as a soldier and his belief in the soldier\u2019s chivalric masculinity influenced the novel. This is an avenue I had not previously considered, but now aim to pursue in the future.<\/p>\n

I am extremely grateful to BARS for granting me the Stephen Copley Research Award, as without it I would not have been able to make the trip. The research I undertook at the Lewis Walpole Library was of great value to my thesis, but also to my development as a researcher. The library itself, located in the town of Farmington, Connecticut (about forty minutes drive from Yale University), has a varied and fascinating collection, including their current exhibition Global Encounters and the Archives: Great Britain\u2019s Empire in the Age of Horace Walpole.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

– Lauren Nixon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following report details research by Lauren Nixon, who visited the University of Yale supported by a BARS Stephen Copley Bursary. Stephen Copley Research Award Report Lauren Nixon: Researching Henry… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1907"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1907"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1908,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1907\/revisions\/1908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}