The William Hogarth Project began as part of a summer session course called “Satire in the Age of Swift” as a way of studying eighteenth-century satire in a variety of genres and media. After an introduction to the digital archives (primarily but not exclusively)Eighteenth-Century Collections Online, our group of scholars were assigned a selection of Hogarth engravings to analyze as satire, or as artifacts of the “satirical turn” that occurred in the age of Jonathan Swift. To guide them in their analyses, the instructor compiled a list of quotations on satire from the archives, asserting that in order to find out what satire meant and the forms it could take in the eighteenth century, one must go to the source. Emphasizing that one need not read through very much of the literary output of the period in order to come to an understanding of satire, the instructor demonstrated the ways in which one could mine the digital archives for clues and information that would, in aggregate, provide some working definitions.
The group of scholars then set about researching their prints. What was the South Sea Bubble? How were Hogarth’s prints on The Four Times of Day remediated in poetry? What were the opinions of his fans and detractors about his Four Prints of an Election? What made Hogarth change Enthusiasm Delineated to Credulity, Superstition, and Fanaticism? How had Hogarth studied drawing, developed his aesthetic, made money? Most, if not all of these questions arose from and were answered through archival research, rather than by reading secondary sources. Next, they mined the databases and library holdings for the opinions of art historians and Hogarth scholars. This served two purposes: 1. It enhanced their skills in bringing outside research to bear on their own interpretations, which turned these interpretations into a conversation with scholars and 2. It provided bibliographies of scholarship of which their readers could avail themselves. Finally, they used a variety of sources, including anecdotes from the digital archives, to create a brief biography of the artist.
They compiled their answers into concise and informative paragraphs, editing and fact-checking with help from the instructor. You can browse the finished products in this portfolio of their work.
The group of scholars then set about researching their prints. What was the South Sea Bubble? How were Hogarth’s prints on The Four Times of Day remediated in poetry? What were the opinions of his fans and detractors about his Four Prints of an Election? What made Hogarth change Enthusiasm Delineated to Credulity, Superstition, and Fanaticism? How had Hogarth studied drawing, developed his aesthetic, made money? Most, if not all of these questions arose from and were answered through archival research, rather than by reading secondary sources. Next, they mined the databases and library holdings for the opinions of art historians and Hogarth scholars. This served two purposes: 1. It enhanced their skills in bringing outside research to bear on their own interpretations, which turned these interpretations into a conversation with scholars and 2. It provided bibliographies of scholarship of which their readers could avail themselves. Finally, they used a variety of sources, including anecdotes from the digital archives, to create a brief biography of the artist.
They compiled their answers into concise and informative paragraphs, editing and fact-checking with help from the instructor. You can browse the finished products in this portfolio of their work.