British Aestheticism and the Urban Working Classes, 1870-1900

This cultural study reveals the interdependence between British Aestheticism and late-Victorian social-reform movements. Following their mentor John Ruskin who believed in art's power to civilize the poor, cultural philanthropists promulgated a Religion of Beauty as they advocated practical schemes for tenement reform, university-settlement education, Sunday museum opening, and High Anglican revival. Although subject to novelist's ambivalent, even satirical, representations, missionary aesthetes nevertheless constituted an influential social network, imbuing fin-de-siecle artistic communities with political purpose and political lobbies with aesthetic sensibility.

'...this book signals the rich possibilities for future studies in the field as it contributes to a continuing reassessment of the Aesthetic Movement.' - Morna O'Neill, Visual Culture

Auteur
DIANA MALTZ is an Associate Professor of English Literature at Southern Oregon University, USA.

Contenu
List of Figures Acknowledgements What is Missionary Aestheticism? An Introduction The Social Strands of Aestheticism Octavia Hill and the Aesthetics of Victorian Tenement Reform 'In ample halls adorned with mysterious things aesthetic': Toynbee Hall as Aesthetic Haven The Museum Opening Debate and the Combative Discourses of Sabbatarianism and Missionary Aestheticism 'Art is the Handmaid of Religion': Slum Ritualism as Missionary Aestheticism George Gissing's Hopes and Fears for a Popular Aestheticism Conclusion: Missionary Aestheticism as Emancipatory Aesthetics? Notes Works Cited: Primary Sources Secondary Sources Index