{"product_id":"before-queer-theory-victorian-aestheticism-and-the-self-9781421431482","title":"Before Queer Theory: Victorian Aestheticism and the Self","description":"\u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eA reimagining of how the aesthetic movement of the Victorian era ushered in modern queer theory.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLate Victorian aesthetes were dedicated to the belief that an artwork's value derived solely from its beauty, rather than any moral or utilitarian purpose. Works by these queer artists have rarely been taken seriously as contributions to the theories of sexuality or aesthetics. But in \u003ci\u003eBefore Queer Theory\u003c\/i\u003e, Dustin Friedman argues that aestheticism deploys its \"art for art's sake\" rhetoric to establish a nascent sense of sexual identity and community.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFriedman makes the case for a claim rarely articulated in either Victorian or modern culture: that intellectually, creatively, and ethically, being queer can be an advantage not in spite but because of social hostility toward nonnormative desires. Showing how aesthetes--among them Walter Pater, Oscar Wilde, Vernon Lee, and Michael Field--harnessed the force that Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel called \"the negative,\" Friedman reveals how becoming self-aware of one's sexuality through art can be both liberating and affirming of humanity's capacity for subjective autonomy.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChallenging one of the central precepts of modern queer theory--the notion that the heroic subject of Enlightenment thought is merely an effect of discourse and power--Friedman develops a new framework for understanding the relationship between desire and self-determination. He also articulates an innovative, queer notion of subjective autonomy that encourages reflecting critically on one's historical moment and envisioning new modes of seeing, thinking, and living that expand the boundaries of social and intellectual structures. \u003ci\u003eBefore Queer Theory\u003c\/i\u003e is an audacious reimagining that will appeal to scholars with interests in Victorian studies, queer theory, gender and sexuality studies, and art history.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eDustin Friedman\u003c\/b\u003e is an assistant professor in the Department of Literature at American University.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Johns Hopkins University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50334818959634,"sku":"9781421431482","price":39.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_4a48f8af-52f4-4ec9-a7b8-403497646800.jpg?v=1727895395","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/before-queer-theory-victorian-aestheticism-and-the-self-9781421431482","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}