About the Book
At the turn of the century, an unprecedented attack on women erupted in virtually every aspect of culture: literary, artistic, scientific, and philosophic. Throughout Europe and America, artists and intellectuals banded together to portray women as static and unindividuated beings who functioned solely in a sexual and reproductive capacity, thus formulating many of the anti-feminine platitudes that today still constrain women's potential. Bram
Dijkstra's Idols of Perversity explores the nature and development of turn-of-the-century misogyny in the works of hundreds of writers, artists, and scientists, including Zola, Strindberg, Wedekind,
Henry James, Rossetti, Renoir, Moreau, Klimt, Darwin, and Spencer. Dijkstra demonstrates that the most prejudicial aspects of Evolutionary Theory helped to justify this wave of anti-feminine sentiment. The theory claimed that the female of the species could not participate in the great evolutionary process that would guide the intellectual male to his ultimate, predestined role as a disembodied spiritual essence. Darwinists argued that women hindered this process by their willingness to lure
men back to a sham paradise of erotic materialism. To protect the male's continued evolution, artists and intellectuals produced a flood of pseudo-scientific tracts, novels, and paintings which warned
the world's males of the evils lying beneath the surface elegance of woman's tempting skin. Reproducing hundreds of pictures from the period and including in-depth discussions of such key works as Dracula and Venus in Furs, this fascinating book not only exposes the crucial links between misogyny then and now, but also connects it to the racism and anti-semitism that led to catastrophic genocidal delusions in the first half of the twentieth century. Crossing
the conventional boundaries of art history, sociology, the history of scientific theory, and literary analysis, Dijkstra unveils a startling view of a grim and largely one-sided war on women still being fought today.
About the Author :
About the Author:
Bram Dijkstra is Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of California, San Diego, and author of several books, including Cubism, Stieglitz and the Early Poetry of William Carlos Williams, A Recognizable Image, and Defoe and Economics.
Review :
"Excellent study of image of women in 19th century art and general cultural attitudes during that period."--James Doan, Nova University
"An excellent book for an undergraduate seminar--sparks lively interest and discussion."--Edward Dickinson, University of California, Berkeley
"Brilliant analysis, brilliant command of language."--Pauley M. Stein, California State University
"[An] excellent book!"--John Murray, New York Institute of Technology
"Dijkstra's straightforward discussion of misogyny in nineteenth-century art is long overdue. His thematic groupings of subject matter cut across lines of academic versus avant-garde, which is very instructive for students to see."--F. Connelly, University of Missouri
"A provocative and absorbing book."--Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
"This pioneering, witty, devastating survey breaks new ground in tracing men's hatred toward women and how this fear and loathing has shaped our culture."--Publishers Weekly
"[Dijkstra is] more than equal to the task of analyzing the cultural war waged on women at the turn of the century....[Readers] will not be able to forget [his] message, so applicable to the end of our century--that ideological dualisms, whether about sex or race, are also deadly."--Alessandra Comini, The New York Times Book Review
"A stupendous work--deeply serious, wildly delightful, abounding in new learning and insights."--Rudolph Binion, Journal of Psychohistory
"A ground-breaking, important book....Will clearly be important to art historians and feminist critics of the late nineteenth century."--Susan Gubar, The Washington Times Magazine
"[A] witty and rewarding study of the 'iconography of misogyny' in late nineteenth-century culture."--Elaine Showalter, The New Republic
"A wonderfully compelling, original and lucid revelation of the labyrinth of modern sexuality and culture."--Catharine R. Stimpson, Rutgers University
"Dijkstra knows an awesome amount about late nineteenth-century art. He displays his wares with enthusiasm and he explicates them well....A gold mine of material."--Nina Auerbach, The Nation
"Dijkstra has a delightful knack for teaching us how to read a painting. He translates critical jargon into informal nuggets we can remember and use."--Sally Mitchell, The Philadelphia Inquirer
"Utterly fascinating....In this profusely illustrated volume, Dijkstra...documents a virulent misogyny that infected the arts in turn-of-the-century Europe and America."--Michael S. Kimmel, Psychology Today
"Thoroughly engrossing....A monumental, and monumentally persuasive, study that cannot be ignored."--Mary Rose Sullivan, San Diego Magazine
"Dijkstra is exhilarating when he gets down to description and denunciation....[His book] is great fun to read."--Los Angeles Times
"Exhaustively documented....A monumental labor of profound significance. No serious student of humanity should miss it."--Karol V. Menzie, The Baltimore Sun
"A fascinating and devastating survey."--Richmond Times Dispatch
"A startling view of late nineteenth-century attitudes toward women, depicted in virtually every aspect of culture: artistic, literary, scientific, and political."--Antiques and Arts Weekly
"A substantial contribution to the study of nineteenth-century culture and to feminist studies. Its analysis of the permutations of anti-woman hostility is both perceptive and persuasive."--Robert Pattison, Long Island University
"Richly illustrated....A strong and chilling book."--The Village Voice
"A whole lexicon of images fraught with the conflicting tensions of erotic temptation and deadly threat."--The Wall Street Journal
"An important contribution to our understanding of modern sexuality and culture. Dijkstra's analysis of literature is solid and deeply rooted in its historical context....A superb and rewarding book."--The Sunday Times (London)
"[Dijkstra's] purpose is a serious one--to analyse the elements which contributed to the concept of feminine evil at the fin de siècle...Dijkstra writes with verve and humor....This is a deeply unsettling book, which no one interested in the birthright of twentieth-century social values should ignore."--Patricia Morison, Sunday Telegraph (London)
"A brilliant analysis."--Pauley M. Stein, California State University
"Sophisticated, intellectually stimulating both for teachers and students. Important intertextual connections."--Hannelore Mundt, University of Wyoming
