The importance of clothes in American Literature (1870–1920)
Cristina Giorcelli
Докладчик
профессор
University of Rome Three
University of Rome Three
ауд. 6, Административный корпус
2014-03-13
12:30 -
13:00
Ключевые слова, аннотация
This paper will debate the significance of
clothes in a number of novels by major late 19th century and early 20th century
American writers (James, Wharton, Chopin, Dreiser, Fitzgerald). Generally
disregarded as, at best, secondary, descriptions of clothes, on the contrary,
lend a meaningful insight into an understanding of characters and situations.
Тезисы
This paper
will debate the significance of clothes in a number of novels and short stories
by major late 19th century and early 20th century American writers. Generally
disregarded as, at best, superfluous, descriptions of clothes, on the contrary,
lend a meaningful insight into the understanding of characters and situations.
I will start with the meaning of shoes in Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie, where the protagonist, a
connoisseur of clothes and a follower of fashion, is shown as rising in the
social ladder also by the shoes she wears. I will then examine the role of
pantalonettes in Kate Chopin's long short story "Charlie," where the
protagonist, first a tom-boy, after an over-feminilized parenthesis, at the end
wears again her pantalonettes as she finds and lives her true individuality. I
will then examine the dress worn by Lily Bart in The House of Mirth when she performs the main character in a
painting by J. Reynolds during a tableau
vivant interlude. Then I will see what hats mean in a few short stories by
Henry James – a lover of (male) hats, according to his friends . Finally I will
analyze the role played by furs in a few novels by Francis S. Fitzgerald and,
particularly, in The Beautiful and Damned.
All
this will be preceded by some theoretical statements by semioticians,
sociologists, literary critics, and art historians about the significance of
clothes in literature.