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Gender and the Formation of Taste in Eighteenth-Century Britain

The Analysis of Beauty

Robert W Jones author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:15th Oct '09

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Gender and the Formation of Taste in Eighteenth-Century Britain cover

The concept of beauty in the eighteenth century, explored through philosophical texts, novels and art.

The concept of beauty was central to debates about art, culture and taste in the eighteenth century. Robert W. Jones provides a fresh understanding of this concept through discussion of a wide range of material, including philosophical texts, novels and representations of the celebrated beauty Elizabeth Gunning.Beauty is one of the most important and intriguing ideas in eighteenth-century culture. In Gender and the Formation of Taste in Eighteenth-Century Britain Robert Jones provides a fresh understanding of how emergent critical discourses negotiated with earlier accounts of taste and beauty in order to redefine culture in line with the polite virtues of the urban middle classes. Crucially, the ability to form opinions on questions of beauty, and the capacity to enter into debates on its nature, was thought to characterise those able to participate in cultural discourse. Furthermore, the term 'beauty' was frequently invoked, in various and contradictory ways, to determine acceptable behaviour for women. In his book, Jones discusses a wide range of material, including philosophical texts by William Hogarth and Edmund Burke and Joshua Reynolds, novels by Charlotte Lennox and Sarah Scott, and the many representations of the celebrated beauty Elizabeth Gunning.

"...an essential work on 18th-century culture. Strongly recommended for upper-division undergraduates through faculty." Choice
"...Robert W. JOnes offers new and important insights into the eighteenth century's shifting and multivalent isage of the concepts of beauty and taste...an important book for all scholars of the period." Modern Philology

ISBN: 9780521121293

Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 16mm

Weight: 420g

284 pages