She seems to be stating that if someone analyzes the Great Exhibition texts (especially those written by British writers) one will see negative underlying themes that are present ("competition, fear, denial, envy, and revenge")... although I have to admit I had difficulties understanding the text.
Trope: language used in a figurative or nonliteral sense
Apprehend: to become or be conscious by the senses of (any external impression). [OED Def. #6]
Comprehend: to lay hold of all the points of (any thing) and include them within the compass of a description or expression; to embrace or describe summarily; summarize; sum up. [OED Def. #6]
Key Points:
Classification of the exhibition.
Clarification between comprehend & apprehend.
Tropes are important.
Analogies allow a speaker/author to make parallels on a subject matter of thought (?).
Analyze rhetoric to understand Britain's "counternarrative".
Argument:
Because there was no classifying system, analogies (tropes) became the best means for apprehending The Great Exhibition.
"In the absence of a scientific, inductive, comprehensive classificatory system ... analogy as a mode of reasoning became by default the most effective means of knowing, of apprehending, the Great Exhibition"
...not only is she referring to those who attended the Crystal Palace, and made comparisons between their land and Britain, she is also referring to modern readers. It's as if she is telling us to analyze the texts that were written for the Exhibition (as an experience) and there we will find underlying "issues" Britain faced.
"occupying the entire western half of the Crystal Palace were Britain and it's colonies"The author also draws a parallel between how the British chose to arrange the exhibitions and their social status in the world. The author [basically] says that the British took up the space they wanted and gave all of what was left over to the other countries, which is what the author believes was happening globally at the time of the Great Exhibition. I guess this would mean the Great Exhibition (following the logic of the author) is in itself a metaphor for England's global expansion.
Not only does it seem that she is comparing the exhibition to the global world, she also compares it to a sentence.
Object:Exhibition :: Word:Sentence.
Rhetorical Devices
Tropes
Analogy
Personification
Repetition
Synecdoche (a part for the whole)
Antithesis (exact opposite)
Irony (ridicule, subtlety)
Aposiopesis (breaking off in the middle of sentence)
I agree. After reading the past two texts I was definitely able to detect hints of competition in the queen's voice and deduct possible hidden intentions of those who set up the Great Exhibition.
[Victorian Literature]
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