British Aestheticism and the Urban Working Classes, 1870-1900 - Beauty for the People

This cultural study reveals the interdependence between British Aestheticism and late-Victorian social-reform movements. Following their mentor John Ruskin who believed in art's power to civilize the poor, cultural philanthropists promulgated a Religion of Beauty as they advocated practical schemes for tenement reform, university-settlement education, Sunday museum opening, and High Anglican revival. Although subject to novelist's ambivalent, even satirical, representations, missionary aesthetes nevertheless constituted an influential social network, imbuing fin-de-siecle artistic communities with political purpose and political lobbies with aesthetic sensibility.

List of contents

List of Figures Acknowledgements What is Missionary Aestheticism? An Introduction The Social Strands of Aestheticism Octavia Hill and the Aesthetics of Victorian Tenement Reform 'In ample halls adorned with mysterious things aesthetic': Toynbee Hall as Aesthetic Haven The Museum Opening Debate and the Combative Discourses of Sabbatarianism and Missionary Aestheticism 'Art is the Handmaid of Religion': Slum Ritualism as Missionary Aestheticism George Gissing's Hopes and Fears for a Popular Aestheticism Conclusion: Missionary Aestheticism as Emancipatory Aesthetics? Notes Works Cited: Primary Sources Secondary Sources Index

About the author

DIANA MALTZ is an Associate Professor of English Literature at Southern Oregon University, USA.

Summary

Although subject to novelist's ambivalent, even satirical, representations, missionary aesthetes nevertheless constituted an influential social network, imbuing fin-de-siecle artistic communities with political purpose and political lobbies with aesthetic sensibility.

Additional text

'...this book signals the rich possibilities for future studies in the field as it contributes to a continuing reassessment of the Aesthetic Movement.' - Morna O'Neill, Visual Culture

Report

'...this book signals the rich possibilities for future studies in the field as it contributes to a continuing reassessment of the Aesthetic Movement.' - Morna O'Neill, Visual Culture

Product details

• Authors: D Maltz, D. Maltz, Diana Maltz
• Publisher: Palgrave UK
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.01.2006
• EAN: 9781349523146
• ISBN: 978-1-349-52314-6
• No. of pages: 300
• Series: Palgrave Studies in Nineteenth-Century Writing and Culture; Palgrave Studies in Nineteenth-Century Writing and Culture
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; Social sciences, law, business > Social sciences (general); B, Cultural Studies, European History, Cultural Theory, The arts: general issues, Arts, Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900, Literature: history & criticism, Literary theory, Culture—Study and teaching, History of Britain and Ireland, Great Britain—History, European Literature, Literature, Modern—19th century, Nineteenth-Century Literature, British literature, British and Irish Literature, Literature—Philosophy, Palgrave Literature & Performing Arts Collection