Post-mortems: Representations of Female Suicide by Drowning in Victorian Culture

by Valerie Meessen

The dead female body served as one of the most important sources of inspiration in nineteenth century Western art. In this period, countless romanticized representations of this kind surfaced. This morbid fascination has been traced back to nineteenth-century patriarchal ideology through feminist analysis: this ultimate objectification of woman strongly appealed to male artists and their audiences. At first glance, this feminist reading, however, does not seem to apply to representations in which a female victim of suicide is depicted. Suicide is traditionally linked to autonomy, an association which seems to be inconsistent with the process of objectification. This thesis investigates this paradox from a feminist perspective and focuses on Victorian representations from the period 1840-1880 which feature death by drowning by the stereotypical 'fallen woman'. The aim of this thesis is twofold: first, it examines how this kind of imagery can be related to patriarchal ideology, and secondly to what extent is this iconography present in the selected works of four prominent writers of this period, namely Charles Dickens' David Copperfield (1849), Elizabeth Gaskell's Ruth (1853), George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss (1860) and Thomas Hardy's The Return of the Native (18

Genres: Nonfiction, Feminism

118 pages, Unknown Binding

Published January 1, 2017

Reviews

[geneva · Rating 5 out of 5]

my all time favourite essay (so far), if u are interested in presentations of female hysteria and the fallen woman iconography in literature this is the BEST… i simply cannot wait to read elisabeth bronfen’s over her dead body. the eroticisation of the dead female!!!!! the gendered other!!!! amazing!!!

[lili · Rating 5 out of 5]

omg i don't even know what to say, wow! the fact that i never even would've thought about this topic and now i just can't stop thinking about it is crazy, i want to read more and talk about it with someone! i really didn't want this essay to end! valerie meessen is genius and the way she writes is chef's kiss, i really hope she's going to write something else, it was amazing!

[kristina · Rating 5 out of 5]

i want to meet valerie meesen

[Mademoiselle Noir · Rating 4 out of 5]

dn exw na prosthesw kati, mono to oti phra kati diavazontas to

[seyda · Rating 4 out of 5]

erkekler neden yaşıyo ki

[Kimmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

found a pdf and read this when it was slow at work. interesting and better than scrolling but i think i could’ve reached all the same conclusions by myself.

[mars · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting essay discussing the expression of misogyny, patriarchy and sexualisation of women’s suffering in art
It took me so long to finish this though, but great analysis