Female Stereotypes in 19Th-Century British Book Illustration
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Female Stereotypes in 19th-Century British Book Illustration Von der Philosophischen Fakultät der Rheinisch-Westfälischen Technischen Hochschule Aachen zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades einer Doktorin der Philosophie genehmigte Dissertation vorgelegt von Nora Karbach Berichter: Universitätsprofessor Dr. phil. Peter Wenzel PD Dr. Sven Knut Strasen Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 02. Mai 2017 Diese Dissertation ist auf den Internetseiten der Universitätsbibliothek online verfügbar. Acknowledgements This long journey into the wonders of 19th-century book illustration would not have been possible without the support of several people. Foremost, I express my sincere gratitude to my advisor Professor Dr Peter Wenzel for his continuous encouragement, valuable insights and for offering me the opportunity to pursue my academic interests in the first place. I also thank my second examiner PD Dr Sven Knut Strasen for his advice and assistance. Many thanks to my friends for their help and willingness to discuss aspects of my research. My special appreciation goes to my parents and my partner. Without their invaluable support, I would not have been able to complete this dissertation. Table of Contents 1Introduction.......................................................................................................1 1.1 Aim and Framework of this Study..........................................................................1 1.2 The Medium Analysed: Book Illustration in 19th-Century Britain........................7 1.2.1 A Brief Overview of British Book Illustration.............................................7 1.2.2 Milestones of 19th-Century Illustrated Fiction............................................18 2 Methods and Theories....................................................................................31 2.1 Stereotypes............................................................................................................31 2.1.1 Definition, Functions and Content of Stereotypes.....................................31 2.1.2 Female Stereotypes in 19th-Century Britain..............................................37 2.2 Reading Images.....................................................................................................52 2.2.1 Iconography - Panofsky's Three Strata of Subject Matter or Meaning......52 2.2.2 Ut Pictura Poesis? - Understanding Text and Image.................................60 2.3 Narrative Theory, Feminist Narratology and Intermedial Narratology................69 3 Women in Visual Arts, Literature and Culture of the 19th Century.................77 3.1 Women in 19th-Century Britain............................................................................77 3.1.1 Childhood and Adolescence.......................................................................80 3.1.2 Courtship and Marriage..............................................................................91 3.2 Women in 19th-Century Art................................................................................107 3.2.1 Painters and Muses – Female Artists in the 19th Century.........................107 3.2.2 Representations of Women in 19th-Century Art – Conventional Stereotypes Amplified?.............................................................................................131 3.3 Women in 19th-Century Literature.....................................................................158 3.3.1 19th-Century Female Writers....................................................................158 3.3.2 Female Character Development in 19th-Century Fiction – Possibilities and Limitations.............................................................................................165 4 Female Stereotypes in 19th-Century Book Illustration..................................175 4.1 The Ideal Woman................................................................................................177 4.1.1 The Ingénue..............................................................................................177 4.1.2 The Angel in the House............................................................................220 4.1.3 True Mother..............................................................................................255 4.1.4 Summary..................................................................................................286 4.2 The Fallen Woman..............................................................................................289 4.2.1 The Prostitute...........................................................................................289 4.2.2 The Adulteress..........................................................................................322 4.2.3 The Femme Fatale....................................................................................349 4.2.4 Summary..................................................................................................376 5 Conclusion....................................................................................................380 1 Introduction 1.1 Aim and Framework of this Study If men could see us as we really are, they would be a little amazed; but the cleverest, the acutest men are often under an illusion about women: they do not read them in a true light: they misapprehend them, both for good and evil: their good woman is a queer thing, half doll, half angel; their bad woman almost always a fiend. ― Charlotte Brontë, Shirley1 British society changed rapidly in the course of the 19th century. Nowadays, we are still fascinated with many developments and inventions of the time, many of which paved the way for modern society we know today. It was, however, a century of opposites with the Industrial Revolution fostering new ways of manufacturing in ever-growing cities while rural areas still remained rather unaffected. For British women in particular, the gap between society's expectations of femininity and the need for self-fulfilment became wider than it had ever been. On the one hand, early beginnings of the women's rights movement provoked thoughts about women's labour, ability to own property and to vote, among others. On the other hand, the notions of appropriate femininity were still rather narrow. There was an elaborate code of conduct which applied in particular to women of higher classes and basically dictated everything in their lives from education to styles of clothing. The popular ideology of the separate spheres proposed separate domains for men and women, which meant that the latter were supposed to content themselves with domesticity. Women who excelled at domesticity were usually highly praised, for example in the works of contemporaries such as Sarah Stickney Ellis.2 The value of women was measured against their ability to find a husband, make a home and bear healthy children. While some of the rules for lower-class women were less strict, they, too, were judged negatively if they failed at leading lives 1 Bell 1858, 115. 2 cf. p. 81 of this thesis. 1 deemed respectable. Interestingly, as much as 19th-century society was preoccupied with respectability, as obsessed was it with its counterpart. The Madonna/whore dichotomy played a great role and served as a structuring device within society. As is said in the quotation I cited above by Charlotte Brontë's character Shirley from the author's 1849 novel of the same name, women seem to be either idealised or demonised. In my opinion, the reference to ªthe cleverest, the acutest menº can be understood in a broad sense as an allusion to Victorian society in general. This attitude brought about a series of stereotypes or clichés, which present either an overly idealised or a condemned, despicable version of femininity. They appear to be deep-seated in 19th-century thinking. The subject of 19th-century women is of special interest to many areas of research, not least because it had been overlooked for quite some time and thus still holds the possibility of gaining fresh insights. For a long time, the canon of art and literature was largely dominated by men ± women were often overlooked for various reasons. The 20th century brought about significant changes concerning the research in both disciplines as scholars began to deal with the complex approach to the topic from a feminist viewpoint. Most of the ground-breaking research of the subjects happened between the 1970s and the early 2000s. Despite their age which might be considered advanced in a scholastic environment, I still regard the following works as a valid basis for my thesis. In case of literary studies, Ina Schabert's Englische Literaturgeschichte: Eine neue Darstellung aus der Sicht der Geschlechterforschung offers a new perspective on British literature between 1560 and 1900 with a focus on gender aspects.3 In a similar vein but with a stronger focus on the social background, Nina Auerbach's Romantic Imprisonment examines the many shapes of femininity in 19th-century fiction.4 In Victorian Heroines, Kimberly Reynolds and Nicola Humble concentrate in particular on the reconstruction of the good/bad 3 cf. Schabert 1997, xi ff. 4 cf. Auerbach 1986, 83 ff. 2 dichotomy attached to 19th-century womanhood.5 All three scholars also draw attention to the presentation of women in 19th-century artworks. In Dickens, Women and Language, Patricia Ingham discusses the occurrence of 19th-century female stereotypes, which she refers to as ªsignsº, in the works of Charles Dickens. She develops her method from an in-depth analysis of the language used