Ophelia and Victorian Visual Culture

Ophelia and Victorian Visual Culture PDF Author: Kimberly Rhodes
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351555677
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
Kimberly Rhodes's interdisciplinary book is the first to explore fully the complicated representational history of Shakespeare's Ophelia during the Victorian period. In nineteenth-century Britain, the shape, function and representation of women's bodies were typically regulated and interpreted by public and private institutions, while emblematic fictional female figures like Ophelia functioned as idealized templates of Victorian womanhood. Rhodes examines the widely disseminated representations of Ophelia, from works by visual artists and writers, to interpretations of her character in contemporary productions of Hamlet, revealing her as a nexus of the struggle for the female body's subjugation. By considering a broad range of materials, including works by Anna Lea Merritt, Elizabeth Siddal, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and John Everett Millais, and paying special attention to images women produced, Rhodes illuminates Ophelia as a figure whose importance crossed class and national boundaries. Her analysis yields fascinating insights into 'high' and mass culture and enables transnational comparisons that reveal the compelling associations among Ophelia, gender roles, body image and national identity.

Victorian Visual Culture

Victorian Visual Culture PDF Author: Renate Brosch
Publisher: Universitatsverlag Winter
ISBN: 9783825355142
Category : Art and society
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This volume provides an introduction to the diverse field of visual culture in the 19th century. It surveys major changes in the field taking into account photography, theatrical practice, changing land- and cityscapes as well as new technologies for entertainment and information. The inventions and discoveries of the period revolutionized methods of cultural production, provoked new intentions in representation and radically altered the experience of the visual in art as well as everyday life. Hence people had to adapt to new perceptions and their habitual ways of seeing were challenged. At the same time they carved out new positions for themselves vis a vis the visual, defining new identities as spectators and observers. In addition to the introductory overview, the volume offers a collection of articles which concentrate on less well-known aspects of Victorian visual culture, seeking to contribute an explanation in the context of the larger political, thus seeking to disclose new vantage points for explanations in the of the larger political, ideological and psychological context of the era.

Ecocriticism and the Anthropocene in Nineteenth-Century Art and Visual Culture

Ecocriticism and the Anthropocene in Nineteenth-Century Art and Visual Culture PDF Author: Maura Coughlin
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429602391
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 411

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Book Description
In this volume, emerging and established scholars bring ethical and political concerns for the environment, nonhuman animals and social justice to the study of nineteenth-century visual culture. They draw their theoretical inspiration from the vitality of emerging critical discourses, such as new materialism, ecofeminism, critical animal studies, food studies, object-oriented ontology and affect theory. This timely volume looks back at the early decades of the Anthropocene to query the agency of visual culture to critique, create and maintain more resilient and biologically diverse local and global ecologies.

Still Shakespeare and the Photography of Performance

Still Shakespeare and the Photography of Performance PDF Author: Sally Barnden
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108487939
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 263

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Book Description
Examines both theatrical and staged art photographs, demonstrating their role in fixing and unfixing Shakespearean authority.

Pleasures Taken

Pleasures Taken PDF Author: CAROL. MAVOR
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 9780367718954
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
Lewis Carroll's photographs of young girls, Julia Margaret Cameron's photographs of Madonnas and the photographs of Hannah Cullwick, "maid of all work", pictured in masquerade - Carol Mavor addresses the erotic possibilities of these images, exploring not ony the sexualities of the girls, maids and Madonnas, but the pleasures taken - by the viewer, the photographer, the model - in imagining these sexualities.

Icons of Beauty [2 volumes]

Icons of Beauty [2 volumes] PDF Author: Lindsay J. Bosch
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313081565
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 780

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Book Description
What gives beauty such fascinating power? Why is beauty so easy to recognize but so hard to define? Across cultures and continents and over the centuries the standards of beauty have changed but the desire to portray beauty, to praise beauty, and to possess beauty has never diminished. Icons of Beauty offers an enthralling overview of the most revered icons of female beauty in world art from pre-history to the present. From images of Eve to Cindy Sherman's self-portraits, from Cleopatra to Madonna, from ancient goddesses to modern celebrities, this interdisciplinary set offers fresh insight as to how we can use perceptions of beauty to learn about world cultures, both past and present. Each chapter looks at an individual work of art to pose a question about the power of beauty. What makes beauty modern? What is the influence of celebrities? How do women portray their own beauty in a different manner than men? In-depth profiles of the icons reveal how specific ideas about beauty were developed and expressed, offering a full analysis of their history, cultural significance, and lasting influence. In addition to renowned works of art, Icons of Beauty also looks at icons in literature, film, politics, and contemporary entertainment. Interdisciplinary and multicultural in its approach, chapters inside this set also feature sidebars on provocative topics and issues, such as foot binding and body adornment; myths and practices; opinions and interpretations; and even related films, songs, and even comic book characters. Generously illustrated, this rich set encompasses history, politics, society, women's studies, and art history, making it an indispensable resource for high school and college students as well as general readers.

A Cultural History of Tragedy in the Age of Empire

A Cultural History of Tragedy in the Age of Empire PDF Author: Michael Gamer
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350155063
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 217

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Book Description
This volume traces a path across the metamorphoses of tragedy and the tragic in Western cultures during the bourgeois age of nations, revolutions, and empires, roughly delimited by the French Revolution and the First World War. Its starting point is the recognition that tragedy did not die with Romanticism, as George Steiner famously argued over half a century ago, but rather mutated and dispersed, converging into a variety of unstable, productive forms both on the stage and off. In turn, the tragic as a concept and mode transformed itself under the pressure of multiple social, historical and political-ideological phenomena. This volume therefore deploys a narrative centred on hybridization extending across media, genres, demographics, faiths both religious and secular, and national boundaries. The essays also tell a story of how tragedy and the tragic offered multiple means of capturing the increasingly fragmented perception of reality and history that emerged in the 19th century. Each chapter takes a different theme as its focus: forms and media; sites of performance and circulation; communities of production and consumption; philosophy and social theory; religion, ritual and myth; politics of city and nation; society and family, and gender and sexuality.

The Afterlife of Ophelia

The Afterlife of Ophelia PDF Author: Deanne Williams
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137016469
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
This collection of new essays is the first to explore the rich afterlife of one of Shakespeare's most recognizable characters. With contributions from an international group of established and emerging scholars, The Afterlife of Ophelia moves beyond the confines of existing scholarship and forges new lines of inquiry beyond Shakespeare studies.

Ophelia's Muse

Ophelia's Muse PDF Author: Rita Cameron
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corporation
ISBN: 1617738565
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
"I'll never want to draw anyone else but you. You are my muse. Without you there is no art in me." With her pale, luminous skin and cloud of copper-colored hair, nineteen-year-old Lizzie Siddal looks nothing like the rosy-cheeked ideal of Victorian beauty. Working in a London milliner's shop, Lizzie stitches elegant bonnets destined for wealthier young women, until a chance meeting brings her to the attention of painter and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Enchanted both by her ethereal appearance and her artistic ambitions--quite out of place for a shop girl--Rossetti draws her into his glittering world of salons and bohemian soirees. Lizzie begins to sit for some of the most celebrated members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, posing for John Everett Millais as Shakespeare's Ophelia, for William Holman Hunt--and especially for Rossetti, who immortalizes her in countless paintings as his namesake's beloved Beatrice. The passionate visions Rossetti creates on canvas are echoed in their intense affair. But while Lizzie strives to establish herself as a painter and poet in her own right, betrayal, illness, and addiction leave her struggling to save her marriage and her sense of self. Rita Cameron weaves historical figures and vivid details into a complex, unconventional love story, giving voice to one of the most influential yet overlooked figures of a fascinating era--a woman who is both artist and inspiration, long gazed upon, but until now, never fully seen. An excerpt from Ophelia’s Muse Rossetti stood behind the canvas, pretending to study Deverell's painting while he admired its model. Despite Deverell's enthusiastic descriptions, Rossetti was completely unprepared for the glorious woman before him. She seemed to be from another age, as if she had sprung to life from an antique painting of an Italian saint. Seated before the window, her hair cast a slight golden glow in the afternoon sun, like a halo. She could not have been more perfect if he had sculpted her from marble with his own hands. Deverell claimed that he had found the perfect Viola, but this girl was far too beautiful to pose as some love-sick page. She was clearly meant to sit for the great heroines of history and myth, and Rossetti vowed to paint her as a queen. "Miss Siddal, has anyone ever told you that you were surely crafted by the gods in order to be painted? If you don't believe that yours is a beauty for the ages, you underestimate yourself." The force of his words struck Lizzie, and she wondered if he was serious, and if it could be true. Was this the thing that she had always been waiting for? Was she really meant to inspire great artists? Her head buzzed with the possibility, but the very allure of the idea felt dangerous. . .

Inhabited by Stories

Inhabited by Stories PDF Author: Nancy A. Barta-Smith
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443843660
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 390

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Book Description
Intertextuality has signaled change, appropriation, adaptation, and derivation. It has focused readers on irresolvable questions of influence and origination, progressive or regressive movement across continents, periods, and media. Inhabited by Stories: Critical Essays on Tales Retold takes a different approach. What would a model of literary study look like that steps out of time’s river and embraces not only the presence and proximity of the world to the senses, but also of the past and the future to the present here and now? When stories inhabit us, imagination and memory extend our ability to see and feel. Phenomenological experience is lived, not just thought. Such a perspective suggests that the past and future inhabit the present, increase the depth of sensory perception itself, and enrich the range of our affective and ethical responses. Grounded in the lived experience of reading, this perspective offers an alternative to an idea of intertextuality as simply following lines of influence and appropriation. It focuses on the expansion of experience created by telling and retelling stories. Ironically, for literary theorists and critics, perhaps the highest form of both praise and critique is a tale retold, since such retellings attest to literature’s instructive power and its perennial regeneration.