Citation

Percec D. Gender Studies 2020; 19(1): 1-15.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020)

DOI

10.2478/genst-2021-0001

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The paper aims to make a connection between the female models of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the portrayal of Shakespearean heroines, given that the 19th-century school of painting was using the Bard not only as a source of legitimation and authority, but also as a source of displacement, tackling apparently universal and literary subjects that were in fact disturbing for the Victorian sensibilities, such as love and eroticism, neurosis and madness, or suicide. As more recent scholarship has revealed, the women behind the Brotherhood, while posing as passive and contemplative, objects on display for the public gaze, had more agency and mobility than the average Victorian women. © 2020 Sciendo. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Female models; Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood; Shakespearean heroines; Sisterhood; Victorian sensibilities