Victorian Visual Culture

After class discussion on ‘geographic imaginaries’ in Amy Levy’s novella The Romance of a Shop, I am interested in how characters’ mapping of geographies beyond the West influences readers’ understanding of place. Within the novel, London is rendered as a concrete, locatable environment with a specificity of addresses such as the photography studio on Baker Street or lengthy descriptors of the London area. This precision clearly stands in contrast to the way other countries are presented: broad, indistinct territories rather than coherent, lived spaces. As a result, these “othered” locations appear as alien, exotic, and saturated with stereotypes.

These ideas are further illustrated in the scene where Phyllis reads aloud from the Waterloo Place Gazette: “‘More fighting in Africa.’ Ah, here’s something interesting at last—‘We understand that the exhibition of Mr. Sidney Darrell, A.R.A. ‘s pictures, to be held in Berkeley Galleries, New Bond Street…” (Levy 79).  Phyllis’ rapid shift from violence in Africa to a Darrell’s art exhibition, reveals not only a lack of sympathy for individuals positioned outside of the English identity but also a sense of detachment from the space. At this moment, Africa is a distant site of conflict that feels disconnected cognitively and emotionally from the sisters’ world. The war in Africa only then becomes relevant later in the story when there is a rumor that Frank might be among the casualties. 

What is most striking is how these concepts reflected in Levy’s The Romance of a Shop continue to shape perceptions of places beyond the West today. Contemporary discourse still tends to categorize regions outside Europe into homogenized, indistinct spaces, and even narratives of tourism often reproduce this sense of otherness. Expressions of surprise such as “I can’t believe they have [literally any large franchise] here” perhaps reveal an underlying assumption that modernity and cultural “normalcy” are primarily Western attributes. This dynamic is intensified when travelers choose to visit countries experiencing war, economic distress, or social upheaval, often exacerbating local challenges and contributing to financial burdens for residents. In Levy’s novella, a similar pattern emerges in Frank’s travels to Africa to produce art amidst conflict. He approaches the region primarily as a site for aesthetics rather than engaging with the lived realities of those who inhabit it. In both cases, these non-Western spaces are consumed as resources whether for artistic inspiration, leisure, or spectacle.

Work Cited: Levy, Amy. The Romance of a Shop. Mint Editions, 2021.