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Fashion and Femininity in the Novels of Frances Burney The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Dissertations Spring 5-2010 Scopophilia and Spectacle: Fashion and Femininity in the Novels of Frances Burney Cheryl Denise Clark University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations Part of the Classical Literature and Philology Commons, and the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Clark, Cheryl Denise, "Scopophilia and Spectacle: Fashion and Femininity in the Novels of Frances Burney" (2010). Dissertations. 921. https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/921 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The University of Southern Mississippi SCOPOPHILIA AND SPECTACLE: FASHION AND FEMININITY IN THE NOVELS OF FRANCES BURNEY by Cheryl Denise Clark Abstract of a Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2010 ABSTRACT SCOPOPHILIA AND SPECTACLE: FASHION AND FEMININITY IN THE NOVELS OF FRANCES BURNEY by Cheryl Denise Clark May 2010 My dissertation investigates how the relationship between looking and being seen, or the interaction between scopophilia and spectacle, intersects with the rise of consumer culture and the ascendance of eighteenth-century fashion and fashionable places. By using Frances Burney’s novels as a lens through which to examine the eighteenth century’s fascination with looking, I consider the ways in which attracting “the look” or gaining attention through the visibility of stylish apparel and goods becomes a pathway to social agency in Burney’s novels. Fashion for Burney, I argue, emerges as a multifaceted system that manifests as a means of as social power that becomes essential in shaping ideas of eighteenth-century femininity and in challenging the existing power structure of the aristocracy. Through successive chapters my project traces how the shopkeeper, the dressmaker, the milliner, the hairdresser, the carriage maker, and the entrepreneurs of pleasure resorts, all help to transform a young woman into a “custom-designed” fashionable lady. The “being seen” object, or the lady of fashion, emerges as an empowered spectacle who not only finds social status through her fashionable displays, but who also becomes a subversive agent in the social realm. ii COPYRIGHT BY CHERYL DENISE CLARK 2010 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank The University of Southern Mississippi’s English Department faculty, both past and present, for providing a stimulating academic environment, and for helping to secure financial support through graduate teaching assistantships and various awards. I am especially grateful for USM’s generous Doctoral Fellowship that provided the funding and time to conduct my research. I acknowledge with pleasure my positive experiences exploring Bath’s Museum of Costume, the Victoria and Albert Museum’s fashion displays, the British Library’s vast resources, Maidstone’s Tyrwhitt-Drake Carriage Museum, the Tunbridge Wells Museum, and Greenwich’s Fan Museum. I would like to particularly thank, Anne Wallace, whose classes and valuable insight nurtured the seed for this project many years ago during my formative years as a graduate student. My greatest admiration for and gratitude must be expressed to Ellen Weinauer for not only fostering my longstanding interests in fashion, but for heralding high standards for academic and scholarly excellence. I am especially indebted to Nicolle Jordan for shoring up my committee with her critical eye and for offering useful and probing observations. And to Kenneth Watson, I am thankful that he always said yes when asked to help in any way. Ultimately, I must express my profound gratitude to my most inspiring mentor, David Wheeler, for kindling my love for eighteenth-century literature, for listening to countless hours of questions, for motivating me when I was discouraged, and especially, for going beyond the call of duty by serving faithfully on my committee even after leaving USM. The greatest debt, however, I owe is to Michael Mays. Without his time, energy, insights, encouragement, and discerning critical iii suggestions, this project would not have happened. Finally, to my family, I want to express my deepest gratitude: to my sweet mother for giving me the love of reading, who didn’t live to see this project completed, but whom I know is smiling; to my dad, whose hard work and determination taught me to follow my dreams; to Laura, my beautiful daughter and best friend, for acting as my cheerleader and for providing a twenty-hour-a- day support center; and last, but certainly not least, to my husband, Sherriel, for sharing with me the joys and burdens of domestic and academic life, for listening patiently to my frustrations, for crying with me through disappointments and losses, for rejoicing with me in the successes, and ultimately for sustaining me with his humor, optimism, support, and love. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT........................................................................................................................ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS................................................................................................iii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS..............................................................................................vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.............................................................................................ix CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................1 II. SHOPPING: LEARNING THE ART OF SELECTION...........................41 III. DRESSING FOR APPEARANCE: LOOKING LIKE A LADY OF FASHION..................................................................................................84 IV. TRAVELLING IN STYLE: CIRCULATING SOCIAL STATUS.........132 V. WALKING THE CIRCUIT: DISPLAY AND POWER IN ENGLAND’S PLEASURE RESORTS...................................................175 VI. CONCLUSION........................................................................................226 BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................233 v LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1. The Rotunda in the Pantheon………………………....………………..…........8 2. Market stalls…………………………………………………....…….……. ...51 3. Shopping districts……….……………………………………….....…………54 4. Fashionable displays in a London shop window……...…….…….……....…..55 5. Window shopping.……………………...……………………………….....57 6. Eighteenth-century Tunbridge ware tea caddy…………….……………...60 7. Shopping at a millinery..……………..………….………………………...61 8. Sewing shop…………………………..…………………………………....68 9. Ladies shopping in a decorative fabric shop ……..…………………....…72 10. Wedgworth’s showroom ………………………..………………...……....77 11. Lady dressing in dressing room……………………………..……….……89 12. Fashionably dressed ladies of the beau monde.....….………………….....91 13. Dresses made from fine lawn as Camilla wears………..…………...........93 14. Mantua styled dress....……………….…………………………….....…...97 15. Lady wearing dress with bustle.……….…………………………..…...…98 16. Lady wearing sack gown which displays volumes of fabric....................99 17. Elaborate decorations on V-shaped stomacher............………....……....100 18. Dress with panniers...............................................................................101 19. Lady wearing panniers turning sideways to pass through doorway........101 20. Lady wearing à la polonaise………………………………………..…....103 21. Eighteenth-century fashionable fans…………………………….…....…105 vi 22. Lady with elaborate hairstyle and fan……………………..………..…...107 23. Examples of eighteenth-century hairstyles………………………...……......108 24. Satirical print showing enormous constructions of hairstyles…..….......110 25. Fashion plate…………………………………………………...…..…..…113 26. Expensive and impressive coach and four…………………………....…......133 27. Ladies participating in fashionable walking………………….……...….......139 28. Eighteenth-century public stage coach………………………….…....…......144 29. Hackney coach stand with water boy…………………………....….....….....147 30. Post chaise with postillions……………………………………...…....….….152 31. Example of a family crest…………………………………...….….....….….154 32. Coachman sitting properly with reins in one hand…………...…..….….156 33. The stylish coach and four……………………………………….….…...157 34. Convertible styled landau………………………………………..……....160 35. Landau with impressive coachman seat……………………...…..….…..161 36. Landau with five-glass windows…………………………..……...……..161 37. Fashionably dressed ladies riding in stylish phaeton……….……....…..163 38. Park riding in phaeton………………………………………..…..….…...165 39. The fast and sportive curricle…………………….…………….…...…...167 40. Orchestra with the supper boxes in Vauxhall…………………..…….....181 41. Grand Walk surrounded by the supper boxes……………………..….....183 42. Orchestra in Marylebone Gardens………………………………..……...187 43. Chinese Pavilion in Ranelagh Gardens……………….………….……...192 44. The Rotunda in Ranelagh Gardens…………………………………..…..193 vii 45. The Masquerade in the Rotunda at Ranelagh Gardens…………...……..196 46. Walkways in Vauxhall…………………………………………….……..203 47. English ha-ha………………………………………………………...…...205 48. The Cascade in Vauxhall…………………………………….........……..206
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