
- 200 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
Martin A. Danahay's lucidly argued and accessibly written volume offers a solid introduction to important issues surrounding the definition and division of labor in British society and culture. 'Work, ' Danahay argues, was a term rife with ideological contradictions for Victorian males during a period when it was considered synonymous with masculinity. Male writers and artists in particular found their labors troubled by class and gender ideologies that idealized 'man's work' as sweaty, muscled labor and tended to feminize intellectual and artistic pursuits. Though many romanticized working-class labor, the fissured representation of the masculine body occasioned by the distinction between manual labor and 'brain work' made it impossible for them to overcome the Victorian class hierarchy of labor. Through cultural studies analyses of the novels of Dickens and Gissing; the nonfiction prose of Carlyle, Ruskin and Morris; the poetry of Thomas Hood; paintings by Richard Redgrave, William Bell Scott, and Ford Madox Brown; and contemporary photographs, including many from the Munby Collection, Danahay examines the ideological contradictions in Victorian representations of men at work. His book will be a valuable resource for scholars and students of English literature, history, and gender studies.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Half Title
- Dedication
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Table of Contents
- List of Illustrations
- General Editors’ Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: Working Definitions
- 1 Victorian Work and Industry
- 2 Gendering Work in the 1840s
- 3 Dickens, Work and Sexuality
- 4 Ford Madox Brown and the Division of Labor
- 5 Perversity at Work: Munby and Cullwick
- 6 John Ruskin, Digging
- 7 Gissing and the Demise of the Man at Work
- Conclusion: New Women, New Technologies and New Work
- Works Cited
- Index