- Hardcover: 304 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; illustrated edition edition (1 Jan 1990)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0670825034
- ISBN-13: 978-0670825035
- Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 16.3 x 2.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,491,106 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
An exploration of the paralells between the ends of the 19th and 20th centuries and their representations in art, literature and film, this book asks whether the approaching millenium signals a beginning or points grimly to an end, and whether the ends of centuries are merely imaginery borderlines in time, or cycles, such as the crises of the "fin de siecle" and the sense of ending so ominously present in the works of contemporary writers and artists. The novelist George Gissing remarked that the 1880s and 1890s were decades of sexual anarchy, when the notions of gender that governed sexual identity and behaviour were being constantly eroded. It was a time when the words "feminism" and "homosexuality" came into use, redefining accepted ideas of masculine and feminine, and a time when the "emancipated woman" was viewed as a threat to family stability. That was nearly 100 years ago, and in this book the author points out the similarity between that time and this time. The sexual abuse of children and the increasing frequency of rape; the censoring of art and the banning of pornography; anti-abortion campaigns and the AIDs epidemic - these late-20th-century crises are, the author suggests, comparable to their "fin de siecle" counterparts. Elaine Showalter is also the author of "A Literature of Their Own: Women Writers from Bronte to Lessing" and "The Female Malady: Women, Madness, and English Culture, 1830 - 1980".
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
47 of 47 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book is an exploration into the literature and culture at the turn of the century in Victorian Britain.
Most of the chapters are concerned with discussing one specific aspect of the literary scene of the 19th century. For example, chapters focus on: the emerging phenomenon of the New Woman, Oscar Wilde and George Eliot in additon to the nwely emergent fiction of the Male Romance genre by authors such as Henry Rider Haggard and Rudyard Kipling. A chapter on Decadence and Homoerotcism has an excellent section on Dracula, where Showalter makes references to many contemporary films of the nineties.
The book is written from a feminist angle. That is to say that, Showalter illustrates how important BOTH male and female gender stereotypes were in influencing much of the culture during the nineteenth century. Easy to read, full of facts and more importantly very interesting and thus able to hold the attention, this book would be a useful study aid for anyone wishing to ivestigate attitudes towards gender and how these attitudes became a part of the literature of the period.
Showalter has utilised a wide variety of texts,art materials and films including highlighting many similarites between the fin de sielce of the 19th century and 20th century. I was surprised to be enlightened to the parallels between the two periods. I would reccommend this book to anyone interested in 19th century literature, particularly students studying 19th century courses at University.
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