Literatue proposal Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Literatue - Research Proposal Example Dandyism became confined to a marginalized subset of men who were loathe to give up their subverting performance of gender and beauty; it re-emerged as a central part of society from 1830, with Balzac's Treatise of Elegant Living, and peaked towards the end of the century with such figures as Oscar Wilde. So what was British dandyism in this transitory phase from 1790 to 1830? This essay will look at Garelick's Rising Star, Cole's â€Å"The Aristocrat in the Mirror†, and the Whartons' The Wits and Beaux of Society to understand the dandy's place in early-nineteenth-century society. This proposal will briefly describe the uses of each of these texts before going on to suggest more potential sources. Rising Star: Dandyism, Gender and Performance in the Fin de Siecle was written by Rhonda K. Garelick in 1998, and focuses on the aspects of dandyism which have flourished into one of the themes of twenty-first century celebrity. In her introduction she recognizes dandies as â€Å"s exually ambiguous† (3) and â€Å"double-sex beings† (5), in a manner which implies that dandyism was threatened by the very existence of womanhood.