Fragments, Genius and Madness: Masks and Mask-Making in the fin-de-siècle Imagination (Studies in Comparative Literature, Band 56) - Hardcover

Segnini, Elisa

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 178188854X ISBN 13: 9781781888544

Verlag: Legenda, 2021

Inhaltsangabe

At the turn of the nineteenth century, as inquiries about degeneration shaped medical, sociological and anthropological discourses, masks flourished as portraits, ornaments, and disguises. This comparative study explores tales that revolve around masks and mask-making in relation to nineteenth-century thought, offering innovative readings of fictional and dramatic works by Max Beerbohm, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Jean Lorrain, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Andrey Bely, next to artefacts such as the plaster cast of the Inconnue de la Seine, the waxes of criminals held in Cesare Lombroso's museum, Rodin's 'horror masks' modelled after a Japanese dancer. In the fin-de-siècle imagination, the author argues, masks addressed two concepts: the repressed elements of the psyche and the perceived parameters of a declining phase in Western civilization. By uncovering the role of masks as key tropes in fin-de-siècle culture, this monograph also demonstrates to what extent the medical, anthropological and aesthetic spheres overlapped, offering insights that contribute to debates about gender and ethnicity in decadence and modernist studies.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Elisa Segnini is a Lecturer in Italian at the University of Glasgow.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Legenda
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2021
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 178188854X
• ISBN 13: 9781781888544
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 204
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: preigu GmbH & Co. KG; mail@preigu.de; ; Lengericher Landstr. 19; Osnabrück; Niedersachsen; 49078; Deutschland