Engraven desire1992

"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...