Engraven desire

"Danae, sleeping and vulnerable; Andromeda, bound and exposed; La pucelle d'Orleans, stripped and taunted: eighteenth-century French literature is rife with such images, painstakingly engraved. In Engraven Desire, Philip Stewart considers these depictions in relation to the texts they illustrate and in relation to each other. A departure from the tradition of viewing illustrations as mere pictures rather than texts meriting interpretation, Stewart's study reveals the subtle but integral ways these engravings participated in the art, literature, and society of their era."--BOOK JACKET. "Focusing on the objectification of women by the "male gaze," Stewart analyzes the various ways in which this masculine power is simultaneously represented and veiled: the fascination with women playing "male" roles, such as soldiers; the preponderance of voyeuristic images of the naked female body; the transformation of male power into hostile forces of nature that render women helpless. Further, Stewart shows how "indecent" engravings that purported to test the limits of eighteenth-century morality often merely reinforced prevailing images of women."--BOOK JACKET. "Addressing critical concerns about the societal enforcement of gender roles in literature along with essential questions about the function of illustration, Stewart's work provides surprising insight into the culturally conditioned act of reading. Provocative in its approach and startling in its conclusions, Engraven Desire - itself richly illustrated with hundreds of arresting reproductions - makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the interplay of art, literature, and society."--BOOK JACKET.