The Lady Showroom: Optical Representations in the Works of Joanna Baillie and Louisa Stuart Costello

Much women's writing in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries attempts to depict other women visually through textual description, use of optical devices, and discussion of bodies and appearances. This thesis argues that they were trying to see and show other women as a way of understanding themselves and each other by examining intersections between visual culture and text through mirrors, miniatures, and portraits. This thesis demonstrates how these works reflect larger shifts in the optical unconscious of the eighteenth century. I focus on works by Joanna Baillie and Louisa Stuart Costello, who theorize the viewing process in their prose and manipulate the viewing process in their drama and poetry, respectively. By manipulating the gaze these authors show readers new ways of seeing women, and subsequently, themselves, and seek to make them conscious of their optical unconscious; their works become the optical devices that allow this to happen.

Name thesis:degree_name

MA

Level thesis:degree_level

Immediate Access

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Year dc:date.available

2012

Author dc:creator

• Richards, Katherine

Contributors dc:contributor

• Laura Engel
• Dan Watkins

• Baillie
• Costello
• Eighteenth century
• Optical
• Visual
• Women

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/1101

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dsc.duq.edu:etd-2117