Abstract
John Finkelberg presents an in-depth examination of visual and textual representations of the dandy, and the ‘dandified’ body, and their contribution to particular manifestations of masculinity in France and England during the first half of the nineteenth century. Tracing the dandy’s function in consumer culture, Finkelberg shows how images of dandies encouraged viewers to participate in an expanding consumer economy between 1815 and 1848 while simultaneously warning about the dangers of over-styling and compromising the male body. A comparison of French and British images and texts produced by Charles Philipon, Cham (Charles Amadée de Noé), Isaac Robert Cruikshank, John Leech as well as the English author Percival Leigh suggests that the malleable body of the dandy was used to establish historically specific desirable ‘masculine behaviors’ in different socio-political contexts.
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Notes
- 1.
I wish to acknowledge the assistance of several people including Dr. Jim Ravin, who invited me to work with his collection of rare French and British prints, Juli McLoone for her assistance with reproductions, and Meg Showalter for her photo editing skills. This contribution also benefitted from the insightful comments of Susan L. Siegfried and Dena Goodman as well as my colleagues David, Hayley, Matthew, Molly, Severina, and Taylor. Finally, the images included were obtained with funding from the Institute for the Humanities at the University of Michigan.
- 2.
In Dandyism in the Age of Revolution, Elizabeth Amann has most recently explored the transnational politics of dress and dandyism in France, England, and Spain during the Revolutionary Era (2015).
- 3.
Kate Nelson Best’s argument builds on Roland Barthes’s understanding of the semiotics of fashion imagery presented in The Fashion System (1983).
- 4.
One example is Honoré de Balzac’s Ferragus, Chef des Dévorants (1833).
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Finkelberg, J. (2022). English Dandies and French Lions: Policing the Male Body in Popular Print and Visual Culture Between 1815 and 1848. In: Dexl, C., Gerlsbeck, S. (eds) The Male Body in Representation. Palgrave Studies in (Re)Presenting Gender. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88604-2_6
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