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Performance and Spectatorship in Edwardian Art Writing

  • Book
  • © 2019

Overview

Authors:
  1. Sophie Hatchwell

    1. University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

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  • Explores the intersection between art history, literature, aesthetics and performance theory
  • Argues that we need to expand the range of texts we think of as art writing, incorporating texts that are otherwise absent from art-historical study
  • Contributes to a rethinking of Edwardian culture by focusing on the heterogeneity of modernism

Part of the book series: Bernard Shaw and His Contemporaries (BSC)

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Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xi
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  2. Introduction: An Invitation

    • Sophie Hatchwell
    Pages 1-18

  3. Characterising the Audience

    • Sophie Hatchwell
    Pages 19-38

  4. Spectatorship and Ekphrasis

    • Sophie Hatchwell
    Pages 39-57

  5. Staging Spectatorship

    • Sophie Hatchwell
    Pages 59-78

  6. Staging Art

    • Sophie Hatchwell
    Pages 79-96

  7. Domesticity, Decoration and Role Play

    • Sophie Hatchwell
    Pages 97-114

  8. Conclusion

    • Sophie Hatchwell
    Pages 115-122

  9. Back Matter

    Pages 123-126
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Keywords

About this book

This book explores how Edwardian art writing shaped and narrated embodied, performative forms of aesthetic spectatorship. It argues that we need to expand the range of texts we think of as art writing, and features a diverse array of critical and fictional works, often including texts that are otherwise absent from art-historical study. Multi-disciplinary in scope, this book proposes a methodology for analyzing the aesthetic encounter within and through art writing, adapting and reworking a form of phenomenological-semiotic analysis found conventionally in performance studies. It focuses on moments where theories of spectatorship meet practice, moving between the varied spaces of Edwardian art viewing, from the critical text, to the lecture hall, the West End theatre and gallery, middle-class home, and fictional novel. It contributes to a rethinking of Edwardian culture by exploring the intriguing heterogeneity and self-consciousness of viewing practices in a period more commonly associated with the emergence of formalism.


Reviews

“The premise of this book is an exciting one, activating art, art criticism, theater, and literature to argue for the distinct nature of Edwardian art criticism and art viewing.  Performance is key here, as the author shows that literary and theatrical tropes were employed to construct spectatorship as a social act.” (Morna O'Neill, Wake Forest University, USA) 

“This highly original book recasts how we think about art criticism and theory. Its attention to the performative rhetoric of art writing offers new and imaginative forms of interpretation that bring out the social and ideological dimensions of criticism. It will make an important contribution to our understanding of its subject, but its significance goes beyond its immediate theme of Edwardian England to suggest alternative ways of analysing art criticism more generally.” (Professor Matthew Rampley, Masaryk University, Czech Republic)

 


Authors and Affiliations

  • University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

    Sophie Hatchwell

About the author

Sophie Hatchwell is Lecturer in History of Art at the University of Birmingham, UK. She is the author of Auctioning Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon: A Sales History 1990-2015 (2017) and Auctioning Stanley Spencer: A Sales History 1990-2015 (2017).

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Performance and Spectatorship in Edwardian Art Writing

  • Authors: Sophie Hatchwell

  • Series Title: Bernard Shaw and His Contemporaries

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17024-0

  • Publisher: Palgrave Pivot Cham

  • eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-17023-3Published: 27 May 2019

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-17024-0Published: 16 May 2019

  • Series ISSN: 2634-5811

  • Series E-ISSN: 2634-582X

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XI, 126

  • Number of Illustrations: 4 b/w illustrations, 1 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Performing Arts, Theatre History, Drama

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