Manchester University Press
3 Clothes make the man
Abstract
Victorian Gothic fiction traces the complex paths between madness, self-presentation, and consumerism, representing all three in terms of a Gothicised subjectivity fashioned from clothes. Self-presentation became an essential element of social advancement and tied into discourses of self-help. The notion of concealment is a vital element of selfhood in the Victorian period. It is the process of concealment that is of importance to Victorian self-fashioning and not what is actually being hidden. Clothing plays a more complex role than a mere 'disguise' for an implicitly 'true' identity or 'deeper' emotions. Attention to dress played a small but significant part in discussions of madness. Under the broader doctrine of moral management, it could provide a means both of identifying insanity and of treating it. The practice of a kind of moral management through clothing by female characters is a frequent feature in novels of the 1860s and 1870s.
Abstract
Victorian Gothic fiction traces the complex paths between madness, self-presentation, and consumerism, representing all three in terms of a Gothicised subjectivity fashioned from clothes. Self-presentation became an essential element of social advancement and tied into discourses of self-help. The notion of concealment is a vital element of selfhood in the Victorian period. It is the process of concealment that is of importance to Victorian self-fashioning and not what is actually being hidden. Clothing plays a more complex role than a mere 'disguise' for an implicitly 'true' identity or 'deeper' emotions. Attention to dress played a small but significant part in discussions of madness. Under the broader doctrine of moral management, it could provide a means both of identifying insanity and of treating it. The practice of a kind of moral management through clothing by female characters is a frequent feature in novels of the 1860s and 1870s.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures vi
- Acknowledgements vii
- 1 Curtain’d in mysteries 1
- 2 Revolution and revealment 23
- 3 Clothes make the man 46
- 4 Mysteries of the visible 86
- 5 Cosmo-Gothic 128
- 6 Undead fashion 159
- 7 Refashioning Gothic bodies 200
- Bibliography 204
- Index 219
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures vi
- Acknowledgements vii
- 1 Curtain’d in mysteries 1
- 2 Revolution and revealment 23
- 3 Clothes make the man 46
- 4 Mysteries of the visible 86
- 5 Cosmo-Gothic 128
- 6 Undead fashion 159
- 7 Refashioning Gothic bodies 200
- Bibliography 204
- Index 219
