'Sighing after the infinite': Masculinity, androgyny, and femininity in the art of Edward Burne-Jones (England).

摘要

The art of Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833–98) is considered overwhelmingly “feminine” not only because female figures far outnumber males in his compositions, but also because many of his male figures display feminine traits. Reviews of the Grosvenor Gallery indicate that his representations of feminized males and masculinized females stirred public debates in the late nineteenth century. Burne-Jones had a number of ardent supporters, but he also had detractors who vehemently opposed his art. These detractors called his paintings imitative and his figures melancholic and sickly, but their most controversial accusations were the charges of effeminacy in his art. In this dissertation, I examine these charges within the cultural context of gender relations in the late Victorian era. The accusations of effeminacy and the subsequent defense of his art reveal the cultural politics underlying the shifting constructions of masculinity in this period.