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The Reading Figure in Irish Art in the Long Nineteenth Century by Tricia Cusack at Abbey's Bookshop,
The Reading Figure in Irish Art in the Long Nineteenth Century
— —
Tricia Cusack

The Reading Figure in Irish Art in the Long Nineteenth Century

Tricia Cusack

$125

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English
Anthem Press
01 February 2022
Portraits in art
Series: Anthem Nineteenth-Century Series
The reading figure has been a recurrent theme in Western art but especially from the nineteenth century. This book examines Irish portraits during the long nineteenth century in which people are shown reading or holding a book. It explores different values ascribed to reading and contemporary constructions of the reader. The selected pictures are by artists born, trained, or practising in Ireland. 'Irish art' is, therefore, used broadly to include work framed in some way by experience of Ireland and its history, culture, and politics. This was a time of large social and cultural shifts for Ireland, and a period when books and other reading, including Irish novels, were often published in London. Many of the artists and sitters discussed were Anglo-Irish Protestants. Both Imperial and nationalist ideologues tended to devalue reading, especially fiction, as an unmanly occupation. Nonetheless, some men are depicted reading and failing to embody a manly attitude. The spread of the novel, and the introduction of ‘silent reading’ allowed women of the middle and upper classes, often Anglo-Irish, to engage with a range of imaginative reading materials, secure from patriarchal surveillance. Visual images of women as serious readers drew on and contributed to the emergence of the ‘New Woman’ in Ireland.
By:  
Imprint:   Anthem Press
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 229mm,  Width: 153mm,  Spine: 26mm
Weight:   454g
ISBN:   9781785276446
ISBN 10:   1785276441
Series:   Anthem Nineteenth-Century Series
Pages:   250
Publication Date:  
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Tricia Cusack taught at the University of Birmingham, Cardiff Metropolitan University, and the Open University. Her research focuses on how visual art embodies ideas about social, cultural, and national identities.

Reviews for The Reading Figure in Irish Art in the Long Nineteenth Century

'Cusack's book draws the reader into an imaginary world of readers, contextualizing representations of mostly women readers through larger concepts of class, cultural, and gender identities in modern Ireland. With a prevalence of women artists representing female sitters, Cusack probes aesthetic and iconographic strategies for representing interiorized thought while deflecting penetrability in the era of the New Woman.' - Dr. Emily Burns, Auburn University, US 'In this highly original study, Tricia Cusack argues that the reading figure in art offers a lens through which to apprehend politics at a variety of levels, from the micro-politics of gender to public suffrage agitation, and offers vivid evidence of the emergence of the New Woman in sections of Irish society. Reading evidence with creativity and care, and developing valuable typologies of reading figures in Irish art, Cusack argues persuasively for the emergence of a distinctive Irish portraiture tradition over the long nineteenth century, and for treating it as both an index and builder of important gendered identities in the Irish context.' - Kevin James, University of Guelph, Canada


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