Title Pleasures taken : performances of sexuality and loss in Victorian photographs / Carol Mavor

Published Durham : Duke University Press, 1995 ©1995

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Description 1 online resource (xiv, 171 pages) : illustrations Contents Ch. I. Dream-Rushes: Lewis Carroll's Photographs of Little Girls -- Ch. II. To Make Mary: Julia Margaret Cameron's Photographs of Altered Madonnas -- Ch. III. Touching Netherplaces: Invisibility in the Photographs of Hannah Cullwick -- Conclusion: After-Time Summary An intimate look into three Victorian photo-settings, Pleasures Taken considers questions of loss and sexuality as they are raised by some of the most compelling and often misrepresented photographs of the era: Lewis Carroll's photographs of young girls; Julia Margaret Cameron's photographs of Madonnas; and the photographs of Hannah Cullwick, a "maid of all work," who had herself pictured in a range of masquerades, from a blackened chimney sweep to a bare-chested Magdalene. Reading these settings performatively, Carol Mavor shifts the focus toward the subjectivity of these girls and women, and toward herself as a writer. Mavor's original approach to these photographs emphatically sees sexuality where it has been previously rendered invisible. She insists that the sexuality of the girls in Carroll's pictures is not only present, but deserves recognition, respect, and scrutiny. Similarly, she sees in Cameron's photographs of sensual Madonnas surprising visions of motherhood that outstrip both Victorian and contemporary understandings of the maternal as untouchable and inviolate, without sexuality. Finally she shows how Hannah Cullwick, posing in various masquerades for her secret paramour, emerges as a subject with desires rather than simply a victim of her upper-class partner. Even when confronting the darker areas of these photographs, Mavor perseveres in her insistence on the pleasures taken--by the viewer, the photographer, and often by the model herself--in the act of imagining these sexualities. Inspired by Roland Barthes, and drawing on other theorists such as Julia Kristeva and Luce Irigaray, Mavor creates a text that is at once interdisciplinary, personal, and profoundly pleasurable Analysis Sex -- England -- History -- 19th century Sex role -- England -- History -- 19th century Photography of women -- England -- History -- 19th century Photography, Erotic Sexuality in art England -- Social life and customs -- 19th century Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 159-165) and index Notes Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL Print version record digitized 2011 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL Subject Sex -- England -- History -- 19th century Sex role -- England -- History -- 19th century Photography of women -- England -- History -- 19th century Photography, Erotic. Sex in art. POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Public Policy -- Cultural Policy. SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Anthropology -- Cultural. SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Popular Culture. PSYCHOLOGY -- Human Sexuality. Manners and customs Photography, Erotic Photography of women Sex Sex in art Sex role Fotografie. Seksualiteit. Meisjes. Victoriaanse tijd. SUBJECT England -- Social life and customs -- 19th century. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85043324 Subject England Genre/Form History Form Electronic book ISBN 9780822377948 0822377942

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