Pre-Raphaelite Masculinities

Drawing on recent theoretical developments in gender and mens studies, Pre-Raphaelite Masculinities shows how the ideas and models of masculinity were constructed in the work of artists and writers associated with the Pre-Raphaelite movement. Paying particular attention to the representation of non-normative or alternative masculinities, the contributors take up the multiple versions of masculinity in Dante Gabriel Rossettis paintings and poetry, masculine violence in William Morriss late romances, nineteenth-century masculinity and the medical narrative in Ford Madox Browns Cromwell on His Farm, accusations of perversion directed at Edward Burne-Joness work, performative masculinity and William Bell Scotts frescoes, the representations of masculinity in Pre-Raphaelite illustration, aspects of male chastity in poetry and art, Tannhuser as a model for Victorian manhood, and masculinity and British imperialism in Holman Hunts The Light of the World. Taken together, these essays demonstrate the far-reaching effects of the plurality of masculinities that pervade the art and literature of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.