Fashioning femininity in the 1840s : Charlotte Brontë and Villette
(2020) p.155-179- Abstract
This chapter charts the ways in which Charlotte Brontë uses sartorial details to fashion and re-fashion a possible model of femininity in her last novel, Villette. The protagonist Lucy Snowe, a young woman in her mid-twenties, is situated in between, on the one hand, two teenage girls and, on the other hand, two middle-aged women, who between them represent four different models of fashionable femininity. Lucy’s oscillation between attraction and repulsion, identification and rejection, when it comes to her employer, Madame Beck, is at the heart of the text. As Lucy moves from plain all-grey dresses towards a final acceptance of rosy pink-a colour she has initially rejected vehemently-she also negotiates her way towards sexual and... (More)
This chapter charts the ways in which Charlotte Brontë uses sartorial details to fashion and re-fashion a possible model of femininity in her last novel, Villette. The protagonist Lucy Snowe, a young woman in her mid-twenties, is situated in between, on the one hand, two teenage girls and, on the other hand, two middle-aged women, who between them represent four different models of fashionable femininity. Lucy’s oscillation between attraction and repulsion, identification and rejection, when it comes to her employer, Madame Beck, is at the heart of the text. As Lucy moves from plain all-grey dresses towards a final acceptance of rosy pink-a colour she has initially rejected vehemently-she also negotiates her way towards sexual and emotional maturity.
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- author
- Berglund, Birgitta LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2020-01-01
- type
- Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
- publication status
- published
- subject
- host publication
- Fashion and Authorship : Literary Production and Cultural Style from the Eighteenth to the Twenty-First Century - Literary Production and Cultural Style from the Eighteenth to the Twenty-First Century
- pages
- 25 pages
- publisher
- Palgrave Macmillan
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85089051261
- ISBN
- 9783030268978
- 9783030268985
- DOI
- 10.1007/978-3-030-26898-5_7
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- df769e87-8672-4ac4-a7fd-2a53e3825a52
- date added to LUP
- 2021-01-08 15:11:36
- date last changed
- 2025-01-11 03:15:45
@inbook{df769e87-8672-4ac4-a7fd-2a53e3825a52,
abstract = {{<p>This chapter charts the ways in which Charlotte Brontë uses sartorial details to fashion and re-fashion a possible model of femininity in her last novel, Villette. The protagonist Lucy Snowe, a young woman in her mid-twenties, is situated in between, on the one hand, two teenage girls and, on the other hand, two middle-aged women, who between them represent four different models of fashionable femininity. Lucy’s oscillation between attraction and repulsion, identification and rejection, when it comes to her employer, Madame Beck, is at the heart of the text. As Lucy moves from plain all-grey dresses towards a final acceptance of rosy pink-a colour she has initially rejected vehemently-she also negotiates her way towards sexual and emotional maturity.</p>}},
author = {{Berglund, Birgitta}},
booktitle = {{Fashion and Authorship : Literary Production and Cultural Style from the Eighteenth to the Twenty-First Century}},
isbn = {{9783030268978}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{01}},
pages = {{155--179}},
publisher = {{Palgrave Macmillan}},
title = {{Fashioning femininity in the 1840s : Charlotte Brontë and Villette}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26898-5_7}},
doi = {{10.1007/978-3-030-26898-5_7}},
year = {{2020}},
}