EDITORIAL

I am delighted to present the Volume 1 Issue 2 of The Eighth Lamp: Ruskin Studies Today. The reception to the inaugural issue (Volume 1 Issue 1 2008) was tremendous. A number of academics, scholars, curators, and society members wrote to say that the online journal is a useful and a productive venture. A number of scholars have found the journal an appropriate platform for having their recent publications reviewed. The Eighth Lamp has also received expressions of interest from international publishers like Ashgate and Taylor & Francis, who have expressed interest in reciprocal advertising. The mild but steady impact of this humble journal is summarised well by David C Rose (Editor of the Oscholars group of journals), who said: “Your Lamp is well lit”. There have been a number of changes in the past few months.

The Eighth Lamp is now a double blind refereed journal. It was particularly hard to find referees, as the community of scholars is virtual, and therefore, transient. However, a number of scholars from the Ruskin studies community have generously given their time to this process (Dr Carmen Casaliggi and Dr Emma Sdegno for this issue). The other change has been the appointment of a Deputy Editor, Dr Carmen Casaliggi, Lecturer in English, School of Education, University of Wales Institute, Cardiff. We are confident that Dr Casaliggi, due to her international positioning, expertise and enthusiasm, will have a positive impact on the longevity and the reach of the journal. Other ideas in the pipeline include the development of a permanent image-sharing library, which could be used for teaching and publishing purposes by Ruskin scholars, free of charge. This is an ambitious but a much needed step given that Ruskin studies is thoroughly visual in nature. The Eighth Lamp also hopes to acquire an ISSN shortly, which will instil further confidence amongst academics who are hard pressed to report yearly research output.

The interest and tone of The Eighth Lamp remains the same. The journal is interested in reporting research, publications, and events related to John Ruskin; and publishing papers, book reviews, creative essays, and art works by scholars interested in the teachings of Ruskin. The Eighth Lamp is particularly interested in new perspectives on Ruskin, particularly a thematic re-framing of his writings through the lenses of vision, historiography, drawing, fashion and so on. Hence, we welcome contributions from scholars working in all areas of arts, humanities, cultural studies, and built environment.

In terms of the field itself, it is a very exciting time for Ruskin scholars. Six international conferences in 2008 address the nineteenth century and Ruskin, of which two are devoted solely to Ruskin. Dr Sharon Aronofsky Weltman (Professor of English, Louisiana State University), the author of Performing the Victorian (2007), has guest edited a special issue on Ruskin for Nineteenth-Century Prose, which features stimulating essays by some of the best scholars on Ruskin. Furthermore, Dr Cynthia Gamble has launched her recent book, John Ruskin, Henry James and the Shropshire Lads (2008). The book is a simultaneous scholarship on Ruskin and Henry James, and it is a sensitive and a rich biographical account of their lives at Shropshire. John MacArthur (University of Queensland) has published a book titled The Picturesque: architecture, disgust, and other irregularities (2007). While this book is not ‘devoted’ to Ruskin, it will be of interest to scholars interested in the connection between Ruskin and Uvedale Price. A welcome addition to the field of Ruskin studies has been Carmen Casaliggi and Paul March Russell’s Ruskin in Perspective: Contemporary Essays (2007). Ruskin in Perspective is a collection of multidisciplinary essays which uses the theme of perspective to foreground Ruskin’s artistic, spiritual, cultural and political imagination

Creative scholarship (or non-academic scholarship) on Ruskin is also growing. Hunt Emerson and Kevin Jackson’s comic book, How to See (2008), is aimed at educating a younger generation about Ruskin’s teachings. However, as a scholar who regularly writes about Ruskin’s theories of the surface and seeing, I find this book weirdly intriguing, maybe because it presents Ruskin’s central ideas about the constructed nature of vision with such simplicity. Octavia Randolph, an emerging historical fiction writer, has begun work on Ruskin: A Novel. I am particularly eager to see if fictional writing can extend the boundary of Ruskin biography.

In this issue, we have had the opportunity to review The Picturesque and Ruskin in Perspective.Dr Aoife Leahy has written a short but a wonderful paper exploring Ruskin’s influence on Lewis Carroll’s imagery of the architectural space in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The section on creative scholarship has been inaugurated by Dr John Unrau, who has submitted a poem titled ‘Ruskin in St Mark’s, Venice: The Stones Talk Back, January, 1877’. It was first published in 2000with Salmon Poetry, and we are honoured to publish it again

The hunt for abstracts goes on. We encourage authors to submit abstracts of their thesis, conference papers, journal articles or books. While this may not earn many reportable research points, it is really an act of goodwill, as it will connect scholars working on similar topics. For young scholars, it may act as a way of making important connections across the globe or serve as a token of recognition. The works in progress section remains insubstantial and the authors of those wonderfully written and extremely difficult PhD theses remain elusive. Finally, the reporting of Ruskin scholarship from the non-English speaking world is increasing but not adequate. It remains our mission to close this and other gaps. With your help, we can get there faster. We look forward to you continued cooperation.

Dr Anuradha Chatterjee (Editor)
Lecturer, Louis Laybourne Smith School of Architecture and Design
University of South Australia
&
Dr Carmen Casaliggi (Deputy Editor) Lecturer in English, School of Education, University of Wales Institute, Cardiff