Edith Wharton and the visual arts / Emily J. Orlando.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Orlando, Emily J. (Emily Josephine), 1969-

Series:

Studies in American literary realism and naturalism

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Wharton, Edith, 1862-1937--Criticism and interpretation.

Wharton, Edith.

Wharton, Edith, 1862-1937--Knowledge and learning--Art.

Wharton, Edith, 1862-1937.

Art and literature--United States--History--20th century.

Art and literature.

Criticism and interpretation.

United States.

History.

Visual perception in literature.

Physical Description:

xiii, 250 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Tuscaloosa : University of Alabama Press, [2007]

Summary:

This work explores Edith Wharton's career-long concern with a 19th-century visual culture that limited female artistic agency and expression. Wharton repeatedly invoked the visual arts-especially painting-as a medium for revealing the ways that women's bodies have been represented (as passive, sexualized, infantalized, sickly, dead). Well-versed in the Italian masters, Wharton made special use of the art of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, particularly its penchant for producing not portraits of individual women but instead icons onto whose bodies male desire is superimposed.

Contents:

Introduction: Women, Art, and the Sexual Politics of (Mis)representation in Edith Wharton 1

1 Beauty Enshrined: Living Pictures and Still Lifes; or, Her Body Becomes His Art 27

2 Picturing Lily: Body Art in The House of Mirth and "The Potboiler"; or, Her Body Becomes Her Art 55

3 "Beauty Enthroned": The Muse's Progress 87

4 Angels at the Grave: Custodial Work in the Palace of Art 126

5 "We'll look, not at visions, but at realities": Women, Art, and Representation in The Age of Innocence 170.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [229]-239) and index.

ISBN:

0817315373

OCLC:

68711935

Publisher Number:

9780817315375

Online:

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description