Portraiture and British Gothic Fiction

The Rise of Picture Identification, 1764–1835

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, Gothic & Romantic, British
Cover of the book Portraiture and British Gothic Fiction by Kamilla Elliott, Johns Hopkins University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Kamilla Elliott ISBN: 9781421408644
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press Publication: December 1, 2012
Imprint: Language: English
Author: Kamilla Elliott
ISBN: 9781421408644
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication: December 1, 2012
Imprint:
Language: English

Traditionally, kings and rulers were featured on stamps and money, the titled and affluent commissioned busts and portraits, and criminals and missing persons appeared on wanted posters. British writers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, however, reworked ideas about portraiture to promote the value and agendas of the ordinary middle classes.

According to Kamilla Elliott, our current practices of "picture identification" (driver’s licenses, passports, and so on) are rooted in these late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century debates.

Portraiture and British Gothic Fiction examines ways writers such as Horace Walpole, Ann Radcliffe, Mary Shelley, and C. R. Maturin as well as artists, historians, politicians, and periodical authors dealt with changes in how social identities were understood and valued in British culture—specifically, who was represented by portraits and how they were represented as they vied for social power.

Elliott investigates multiple aspects of picture identification: its politics, epistemologies, semiotics, and aesthetics, and the desires and phobias that it produces. Her extensive research not only covers Gothic literature’s best-known and most studied texts but also engages with more than 100 Gothic works in total, expanding knowledge of first-wave Gothic fiction as well as opening new windows into familiar work.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Traditionally, kings and rulers were featured on stamps and money, the titled and affluent commissioned busts and portraits, and criminals and missing persons appeared on wanted posters. British writers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, however, reworked ideas about portraiture to promote the value and agendas of the ordinary middle classes.

According to Kamilla Elliott, our current practices of "picture identification" (driver’s licenses, passports, and so on) are rooted in these late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century debates.

Portraiture and British Gothic Fiction examines ways writers such as Horace Walpole, Ann Radcliffe, Mary Shelley, and C. R. Maturin as well as artists, historians, politicians, and periodical authors dealt with changes in how social identities were understood and valued in British culture—specifically, who was represented by portraits and how they were represented as they vied for social power.

Elliott investigates multiple aspects of picture identification: its politics, epistemologies, semiotics, and aesthetics, and the desires and phobias that it produces. Her extensive research not only covers Gothic literature’s best-known and most studied texts but also engages with more than 100 Gothic works in total, expanding knowledge of first-wave Gothic fiction as well as opening new windows into familiar work.

More books from Johns Hopkins University Press

Cover of the book The Philadelphia Country House by Kamilla Elliott
Cover of the book Protesting Affirmative Action by Kamilla Elliott
Cover of the book The Empire of the Dead by Kamilla Elliott
Cover of the book The Lupus Encyclopedia by Kamilla Elliott
Cover of the book Mental Health Issues and the University Student by Kamilla Elliott
Cover of the book Embezzlement and High Treason in Louis XIV's France by Kamilla Elliott
Cover of the book The Twentieth-Century American City by Kamilla Elliott
Cover of the book At War with PTSD by Kamilla Elliott
Cover of the book Rock Star by Kamilla Elliott
Cover of the book Einstein's Jewish Science by Kamilla Elliott
Cover of the book Secession Winter by Kamilla Elliott
Cover of the book Measuring Success by Kamilla Elliott
Cover of the book Progressives at War by Kamilla Elliott
Cover of the book Anna Letitia Barbauld and Eighteenth-Century Visionary Poetics by Kamilla Elliott
Cover of the book Parrots by Kamilla Elliott
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy