1. George Eliot and John Everett Millais: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Realism
- Author
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Nord, Deborah Epstein
- Subjects
Adam Bede (Novel) ,Ethics ,Humanities ,Social sciences ,Princeton University -- Ethical aspects - Abstract
In an effort to recover the extensive cross-fertilization between literary and visual representation in the Victorian period, I discuss the possible influence of John Everett Millais's Christ in the House of His Parents (1849-50) on George Eliot's Adam Bede (1859). Bringing to bear on this connection the discourses of art criticism, evolutionary science, the higher criticism, and aesthetic theory, I see the significance of this influence in terms of what it tells us about mid-century Realism's radical dissent from traditional representations of, among other things, women, religion, and the working classes. At the heart of this dissent--and of the outraged reactions to Millais's painting--is the role of the flawed human body., It is almost impossible to overstate the close relationship and regular cross-fertilization between literature and the visual arts in the nineteenth century. This interdependence proves difficult to recover, in part [...]
- Published
- 2018
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