04055nam 2200709Ia 450 991079269890332120200520144314.01-282-93598-497866129359851-4008-3280-210.1515/9781400832804(CKB)2670000000028772(EBL)537697(OCoLC)692156954(SSID)ssj0000458064(PQKBManifestationID)11325289(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000458064(PQKBWorkID)10422530(PQKB)10561933(OCoLC)715154054(MdBmJHUP)muse36528(DE-B1597)446560(OCoLC)979592899(DE-B1597)9781400832804(Au-PeEL)EBL537697(CaPaEBR)ebr10448510(CaONFJC)MIL293598(MiAaPQ)EBC537697(EXLCZ)99267000000002877220091003d2008 uy 0engur|n|---|||||txtccrFateful beauty[electronic resource] aesthetic environments, juvenile development, and literature 1860-1960 /Douglas MaoCourse BookPrinceton Princeton University Press20081 online resource (332 p.)Description based upon print version of record.0-691-14661-6 0-691-13348-4 Includes bibliographical references (p. [289]-305) and index. Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- INTRODUCTION. Talking about Beauty -- CHAPTER ONE. Stealthy Environments -- CHAPTER TWO. Aestheticism's Environments -- CHAPTER THREE. Aesthetics of Acuteness -- CHAPTER FOUR. Tropisms of Longing -- CHAPTER FIVE. Great House and Super-Cortex -- CHAPTER SIX. Growing Up Awry -- Epilogue -- Notes -- References -- IndexWhen Oscar Wilde said he had "seen wallpaper which must lead a boy brought up under its influence to a life of crime," his joke played on an idea that has often been taken quite seriously--both in Wilde's day and in our own. In Fateful Beauty, Douglas Mao recovers the lost intellectual, social, and literary history of the belief that the beauty--or ugliness--of the environment in which one is raised influences or even determines one's fate. Weaving together readings in literature, psychology, biology, philosophy, education, child-rearing advice, and interior design, he shows how this idea abetted a dramatic rise in attention to environment in many discourses and in many practices affecting the lives of the young between the late nineteenth century and the middle of the twentieth. Through original and detailed analyses of Wilde, Walter Pater, James Joyce, Theodore Dreiser, Rebecca West, and W. H. Auden, Mao shows that English-language writing of the period was informed in crucial but previously unrecognized ways by the possibility that beautiful environments might produce better people. He also reveals how these writers shared concerns about environment, evolution, determinism, freedom, and beauty with scientists and social theorists such as Herbert Spencer, Hermann von Helmholtz, Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, and W.H.R. Rivers. In so doing, Mao challenges conventional views of the roles of beauty and the aesthetic in art and life during this time.Literature, Modern19th centuryHistory and criticismLiterature, Modern20th centuryHistory and criticismLiterature and societyLiteratureAestheticsLiterature, ModernHistory and criticism.Literature, ModernHistory and criticism.Literature and society.LiteratureAesthetics.801/.93Mao Douglas1966-1464717MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910792698903321Fateful beauty3752358UNINA