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Volume 14
Issue 6
10.3390/arts14060172
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Article

Parliamentary Alchemists and Electric Colossi: The Scientific and the Nostalgic Past in Sir John Tenniel’s Punch Cartoons

by
Grayson C. V. Van Beuren
Independent Researcher, Richmond, VA 23220, USA
Arts 2025, 14(6), 172; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts14060172
Submission received: 11 October 2025 / Revised: 7 December 2025 / Accepted: 9 December 2025 / Published: 12 December 2025
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Early Modern Global Materials, Materiality, and Material Culture)
Versions Notes

Abstract

The modern world has had a long and uneasy relationship with the nostalgic past, with the line between the harmless and the harmful in this relationship often difficult to parse. This article looks at a particular microcosm of nostalgic medievalism in nineteenth century popular culture—selections from the work of prominent editorial cartoonist Sir John Tenniel in Punch that combine gothic imagery with depictions of modern science and technology—through the literary critical theoretical framework of nostalgia theory, connecting it with strong societal forces in his time.
Keywords: nostalgia theory; medievalism; Victorian era; political cartoons; early modern receptions nostalgia theory; medievalism; Victorian era; political cartoons; early modern receptions

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MDPI and ACS Style

Van Beuren, G.C.V. Parliamentary Alchemists and Electric Colossi: The Scientific and the Nostalgic Past in Sir John Tenniel’s Punch Cartoons. Arts 2025, 14, 172. https://doi.org/10.3390/arts14060172

AMA Style

Van Beuren GCV. Parliamentary Alchemists and Electric Colossi: The Scientific and the Nostalgic Past in Sir John Tenniel’s Punch Cartoons. Arts. 2025; 14(6):172. https://doi.org/10.3390/arts14060172

Chicago/Turabian Style

Van Beuren, Grayson C. V. 2025. "Parliamentary Alchemists and Electric Colossi: The Scientific and the Nostalgic Past in Sir John Tenniel’s Punch Cartoons" Arts 14, no. 6: 172. https://doi.org/10.3390/arts14060172

APA Style

Van Beuren, G. C. V. (2025). Parliamentary Alchemists and Electric Colossi: The Scientific and the Nostalgic Past in Sir John Tenniel’s Punch Cartoons. Arts, 14(6), 172. https://doi.org/10.3390/arts14060172

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