Literatue - Research Proposal Example

How did dandies fit into the gender categories of their time? The eighteenth century was perhaps one of Britain's most tolerant times in terms of gender. For most of the century, French mores were idealized, and certain behaviours – daintiness, conversation as an art, an attention to fashion – were accepted within the definition of masculinity. However, the 1789 French Revolution terrified the trend-setting upper classes, who believed that emulation of French manners could lead to an emulation of the lower class revolt, and from this point on British men were encouraged to create a new and brusque form of masculinity.

Dandyism became confined to a marginalized subset of men who were loathe to give up their subverting performance of gender and beauty; it re-emerged as a central part of society from 1830, with Balzac's Treatise of Elegant Living, and peaked towards the end of the century with such figures as Oscar Wilde. So what was British dandyism in this transitory phase from 1790 to 1830? This essay will look at Garelick's Rising Star, Cole's “The Aristocrat in the Mirror”, and the Whartons' The Wits and Beaux of Society to understand the dandy's place in early-nineteenth-century society.

This proposal will briefly describe the uses of each of these texts before going on to suggest more potential sources. Rising Star: Dandyism, Gender and Performance in the Fin de Siecle was written by Rhonda K. Garelick in 1998, and focuses on the aspects of dandyism which have flourished into one of the themes of twenty-first century celebrity. In her introduction she recognizes dandies as “sexually ambiguous” (3) and “double-sex beings” (5), in a manner which implies that dandyism was threatened by the very existence of womanhood.

If Garelick can prove that women were anathema to dandies, how can we understand the femininity of dandyism? Can it be argued that dandyism was an idealization of womanhood performed by men? If so, what does that suggest about contemporary male attitudes towards women? In this way I shall link dandyism to the wider picture of gender relations at the time. S.R. Cole, in “The Aristocrat in the Mirror: Male Vanity and Bourgeois Desire in William Makepeace Thackeray's Vanity Fair” (2006) takes dandyism in a different direction, disappearing rather than demonizing women.

Cole thinks of dandyism as a class-related phenomenon, with reference to homo-eroticism between men: dandyism is “driven by … the desire for aristocratic status”, and pursues an admiring “male gaze” (Cole, 138). In that case, it is necessary to place homo-eroticism and homosexuality within the gender spectrum – is a man's romantic interest in his own gender a masculine or feminine trait? Is the dandy, desperate for male attention, turning away from women or becoming one of them? Again, is dandyism inevitably hostile to womanhood?

To talk about dandyism means, necessarily to talk about dandies themselves. The Wits and Beaux of Society was written in 1860 by Grace Wharton and Philip Wharton, as a companion piece to their Queens of Society which had concentrated on well-known women of the time. Wits and Beaux focused on men, particularly dandies and “men who often took an active part in the stirring events of their day” (Wharton, xxix). Although the first edition of this book was published in 1860, thirty years after the scope of this essay, it is interesting that dandies are labelled 'beaux', presumably after the man who espoused dandyism, Beau Brummell – a man “never likely to be quite forgotten” (xvi).

The 'Beau Fielding' chapter begins with a section called 'On Wits and Beaux' which defines 'beau', or dandyism, as “a cheat … who imposes on his public by his clothes or appearance” (80). Again, dandies are exclusively men; women barely feature in the entire book unless they are “shameless” (24) people who cause scandals for the men. I expect this work to provide the essay with many contemporary examples of how women are separated from dandyism, regardless of how 'unmasculine' the phenomenon appears.

Other sources consulted in this essay may include the 1924 American silent film Beau Brummel, to discern if nineteenth-century British dandyism had any influence on twentieth-century America. I am interested to find out how the United States responded to this highly artificial phenomenon, and whether Garelick's idea that dandyism is “a crucial part of contemporary American culture” (Garelick, 3) is proven by primary sources. The fictional works of authors such as Baudelaire and Wilde may be referenced to show the far-reaching influence of earlier dandyism.

I will also look at Brent Alan Shannon's The Cut of His Coat: Men, Dress and Consumer Culture in Britain, 1860-1914 (2006) and Jessica Menz's Dandies and Their Misogynistic Attitudes (2004) to see how dandyism interacted with gender in early nineteenth-century Britain. NOTES TO CUSTOMER 1. I have not seen the entire film but there are useful clips available on YouTube if you search 'Beau Brummell.' Here are two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=894l6GB8XU4 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyehXYk22fU 2.

I have revised the last paragraph to make your thesis simpler, and to use books that have dandyism as the main topic. One book is available here [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=_v8SdzDGJH8C&lpg=PA130&dq=dandy%20early%20nineteenth%20century&pg=PA130#v=onepage&q=dandy%20early%20nineteenth%20century&f=false] and the other is available here [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=nn1aO5AguCsC&lpg=PA5&dq=dandy%20early%20nineteenth%20century&pg=PA5#v=onepage&q&f=false] Works Cited Cole, Sarah Rose.

“The Aristocrat in the Mirror: Male Vanity and Bourgeois Desire in William Makepeace Thackeray's Vanity Fair.” Nineteenth-Century Literature 61.2 2005: 137-170. PDF document. Garelick, R.K. Rising Star: Dandyism, Gender and Performance at the Fin de Siecle. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998. Print. Wharton, Grace and Philip Wharton. The Wits and Beaux of Society. Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg, 19 March 2006. Web. 21 March 2011.