1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910972954403321

Autore

Danahay Martin A.

Titolo

Gender at work in Victorian culture : literature, art and masculinity / / Martin A. Danahay

Pubbl/distr/stampa

London ; ; New York : , : Routledge, , 2016

ISBN

1-315-25465-4

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (201 pages) : illustrations

Collana

The nineteenth century series

Disciplina

820.935309034

Soggetti

English literature - 19th century - History and criticism

Working class in literature

Literature and society - Great Britain - History - 19th century

Men - Employment - Great Britain - History - 19th century

Division of labor - Great Britain - History - 19th century

Working class - Great Britain - History - 19th century

Masculinity in literature

Sex role in literature

Working class in art

Work in literature

Men in literature

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

First published 2005 by Ashgate.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

1. Victorian work and industry -- 2. Gendering work in the 1840s -- 3. Dickens, work and sexuality -- 4. Ford Madox Brown and the division of labor -- 5. Perversity at work : Munby and Cullwick -- 6. John Ruskin, digging -- 7. Gissing and the demise of the man at work.

Sommario/riassunto

Martin A. Danahay's lucidly argued and accessibly written volume offers a solid introduction to important issues surrounding the definition and division of labor in British society and culture. 'Work,' Danahay argues, was a term rife with ideological contradictions for Victorian males during a period when it was considered synonymous with masculinity. Male writers and artists in particular found their labors troubled by class and gender ideologies that idealized 'man's work' as sweaty, muscled labor and tended to feminize intellectual and artistic pursuits.



Though many romanticized working-class labor, the fissured representation of the masculine body occasioned by the distinction between manual labor and 'brain work' made it impossible for them to overcome the Victorian class hierarchy of labor. Through cultural studies analyses of the novels of Dickens and Gissing; the nonfiction prose of Carlyle, Ruskin and Morris; the poetry of Thomas Hood; paintings by Richard Redgrave, William Bell Scott, and Ford Madox Brown; and contemporary photographs, including many from the Munby Collection, Danahay examines the ideological contradictions in Victorian representations of men at work. His book will be a valuable resource for scholars and students of English literature, history, and gender studies.