Eyes of love : the gaze in English and French paintings and novels, 1840-1900
"A man in profile looks at a woman, who looks away from him and in the direction of the viewer. Eyes of Love shows how the frequency of this composition calls for a reconsideration of a widely held argument about 'the gaze' - that women are merely passive erotic objects, while men are active erotic subjects." "Although men might be said to 'own' the gaze, women's ways of looking suggest a lively subjectivity. A woman's two eyes convey more expression than a man's single profiled eye, as well as her stronger commitment to the morality of love. Further, women in love are also the more deeply committed to culture and not to nature, as many have argued." "Kern's bold reinterpretation challenges a mass of scholarship that has been so intent upon viewing women as objectified victims of the male gaze that it has neglected to consider the potent subjectivity evident in women's eyes. Compared with the eyes of men, the eyes of women are more visible, look out into a wider world, consider a more varied range of thoughts, and convey more profound, if not more intense, emotions."--Jacket
283 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 25 cm
9780948462832, 0948462833
34784324
1. Meeting
2. Recreation
3. Working
4. The Nude
5. Prostitution
6. Seduction
7. Rescue
8. Marriage