My name is Jason Boyd. I’m currently a senior research associate at the University of Toronto. I’ve become interested in ‘performative speaking’ (i.e. oral performances other than theatre plays) in the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. One project I’m developing concerns the phenomenon of lecture tours, itinerant lecturers and the culture of lecturing as a form of ‘edutainment.’ Lecturing is part of a larger cultural practice of performative speaking that includes the recitation. Another project is a study of the career of Jessie Alexander, a popular female Canadian elocutionist active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
I started this blog because I proposed a panel called “Vox Populi: Reciters and Recitations in Victorian Britain” for the 2008 North American Victorian Studies Association (NAVSA) Annual Conference at Yale University, November 14-16, 2008. I thought it would be interesting to start a blog for people interested in the history and practice of recitation. There seems to be very little readily available on this phenomenon, so I would like to share what I’ve found, and I hope others will do the same. I’m also interested in generating something at least a little more substantial and sustainable from this conference and panel than a citation in my C.V. under “Conference Papers.”
Hi Jason,
I found your web site thanks to Google. Jessie Alexander was my great-great grandaunt and I too have been researching her, although I am sure that you have gotten farther than I have. She was a pretty fascinating woman and well remembered in my family. I would be happy to help you in your research if you need any family information. I don’t know if you are aware, but her brother William Walker Alexander was also a well-known artist/engraver. His work is easily found with Google.
Feel free to contact me at nbray1@gmail.com
All the best,
Nancy Bray