The satirical gaze : prints of women in late eighteenth-century England / Cindy McCreery.

Format:

• Book

Author/Creator:

• McCreery, Cindy, 1968-

Series:

• Oxford historical monographs

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

• Women--England--Caricatures and cartoons.
• Women--England--Social conditions--18th century.
• Prints, English--18th century.
• Caricature--England--History--18th century.
• English wit and humor, Pictorial.
• Caricatures and cartoons--England.
• Caricatures and cartoons.
• Caricature.
• History.
• Prints, English.
• Women.
• Social conditions.
• England.

Genre:

• Caricatures and cartoons.
• Cartoons (Humor)

Physical Description:

xvii, 281 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Clarendon Press ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2004.

Summary:

• This is the first scholarly study to focus on satirical prints of women in the late eighteenth century. The period c. 1760-1800 was the golden age of graphic satire: thousands of copper-plate engravings, humorous and/or critical in tone, were published. They were sold in London and the provinces and exported overseas, and were viewed by nearly all sections of the population.
• These prints both reflected and sought to shape contemporary debate about the role of women in society. While attitudes varied considerably, the general consensus was that women were more visible in society than ever before-on the streets, on the stage, on the walls of the Royal Academy, on the hustings, and in the pleasure gardens. The satirical prints of the period reveal perceptions of women and their behaviour as prostitutes and courtesans, wives and mothers, old maids and widows. Cindy McCreery's detailed exploration of this relatively neglected genre extends our knowledge of contemporary attitudes towards women and offers an important new dimension to our understanding of Georgian culture.

Contents:

• Late Eighteenth-Century England 3
• Women in Late Eighteenth-Century England 4
• Women in Satirical Prints 6
• State of the Field 7
• 1 Satirical Prints of Women and the London Art Market 13
• Scope of the Art Market 14
• Satirical Prints and the Art Market: Production and Distribution 19
• Satirical Prints and Society: Consumption and Response 30
• 2 Women in the Street: Prostitutes and Market Vendors 39
• Traditional Views of Prostitutes 40
• Prostitutes, Market Vendors, and the London Landscape 45
• Prostitutes as Outsiders 57
• Prostitutes as Victims 71
• 3 Women on the Stage: Courtesans and Scandalous Actresses 80
• The Visual Tradition 84
• Kitty Fisher and her Successors 86
• The Height of Fame: Courtesans and Scandalous Actresses in the 1780s and 1790s 99
• Courtesans and the Limits of Social Acceptance 105
• 4 Women in Male Roles: Literary Ladies and Masculine Politicians 115
• Women as Muses, Artists, Writers, and Performers 116
• Women in the Classroom and on the Playing Field 133
• Feminine and Unfeminine Fashions and Female Sexual Power 139
• Women as Politicians 141
• 5 Women at Home and Abroad I: Aristocratic Adulteresses and Patriotic Wives 148
• Attitudes to Marriage 149
• Aristocratic Adulteresses 153
• Aristocratic Wives' Social Influence 167
• Victimized and Exemplary Wives 173
• 6 Women at Home and Abroad II: Fashionable Mammas and Natural Mothers 185
• Attitudes to Motherhood 186
• Fashionable Motherhood 187
• Powerful Mothers 195
• Powerless Mothers 202
• 7 Women over 35: Old Maids, Merry Widows, and Cosy Wives 212
• Marital and Social Categories 213
• Fashion and Women over 35 229
• Single Old Aristocratic Women 237.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [256]-272) and index.

ISBN:

0199267561

OCLC:

54454593