- DURATION 1 hr
Event Description
John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost (1667) is a central monument in British literary history and was considered the canonical text by Victorian scholars. For Thomas Addison the poem is 'universal' in its scope and 'useful' for teaching 'the great moral of obedience'. Eve damned all women as weak and vain creatures through her succumbing to temptation: it was Eve's 'fall' that corrupted Adam, and by extension, all of mankind. Milton represented the convention of silencing Eve within male-authored texts, until Thomas Hardy subverted the ethos of the 'fall' through three particular novels - Far From the Madding Crowd, The Woodlanders and Jude the Obscure. Hardy proposes not one but two Eve figures - the tempter and the punished - for each Adam and these figures are not gender-specific. Through the 'Eve complex', Hardy provided an alternative reading of the foundation myth which challenged contemporary gender conventions.
- Duration: 1 hr
- Online Zoom event: Join from your computer, phone or tablet (no replay available)
Meet the Host, Tracy Hayes
Tracy Hayes received her PhD in 2017 with a thesis investigating masculinity in the novels of Thomas Hardy. She is the Secretary and Website/Social Media Director for the Thomas Hardy Society and regularly organizes conferences and study days. Having presented papers on Hardy, M.R. James and Edgar Allan Poe at numerous conferences throughout the UK, Dr Hayes has also published in various journals including the DNHAS Proceedings, Palgrave Communications, RRR, Merry Meet, the Victorian Popular Fiction Association journal and Short Fiction Studies, and she has contributed chapters to various collections on Hardy, Relationships, the Brontës, Poe and the Gothic. Her current research centres around representations of Gothic masculinity in the short stories of Poe, Hardy and M.R. James.
Preparing for the Event
For the best experience, you will need to have Zoom downloaded onto your computer. Please ensure you're connected to broadband/wifi rather than using your mobile phone connection (3G/4G).
We also recommend that pets are either calmly sitting on your lap or in another room, and any refreshments you may require are within your reach!
More Information
What if I can’t make the event?
If a recording’s available for the event, you can still register for it and we will send you an email with a link to a recording shortly after it ends.
Will my camera be on and will I be visible to the other people?
Your camera and microphone does not need to be on for you to enjoy the event. The choice about whether to do this is completely yours.
How do I watch the live event?
Rest Less events are hosted on Zoom, a computer application that allows you to attend online events just by clicking a link. For detailed instructions, please go to our "FAQ" page, which you can find a link to in the nav bar at the top of the page.
How do I sign-up for and access the recording? (Recorded events only)
Book the event as normal (as if you are attending live). After the event ends you will automatically receive a post-event email with a link to the recording, as long as the event was recorded. You do not need to do anything else and there is no separate booking process for recordings only. Please note it can take up to 24 hours for Zoom to process recordings.