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Ophelia and Victorian Visual Culture: Representing Body Politics in the Nineteenth Century book cover

1st Edition

Ophelia and Victorian Visual Culture Representing Body Politics in the Nineteenth Century

By Kimberly Rhodes Copyright 2008
224 Pages
by Routledge

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... Read more
Contents: Introduction; 'Pretty Opelia': mid-century ideals in the parlor; 'Pretty Ophelia': mid-century ideals at the Royal Academy; The pre-Raphaelite crisis; From life: Ophelia and photography; Performance anxiety: pictorial and theatrical representations at the fin-de-siècle; Bibliography; Appendix; Index.

Biography

Kimberly Rhodes is Associate Professor of Art History at Drew University, USA

'Kimberly Rhodes has uncovered a veritable explosion in visual representations of Ophelia in the Victorian period, bringing to bear her considerable talents as a close reader to demonstrate how this tragic heroine embodied Victorian anxieties about gender, sexuality, and normalcy. In a perceptive twist, Rhodes shows how women artists and actresses reinvented the pathetic figure of Ophelia as the agent of their professional success. A model study for anyone interested in visual culture.' Anne Helmreich, Case Western Reserve University, USA.

'Well documented with period criticism and artists' writings...this thoroughly interdisciplinary study merges literature, art, and theater. It also will interest scholars in gender studies and visual culture...Recommended.’ Choice

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