Overview

Why did the work of Dante Gabriel Rossetti come to dominate the cultural geography of England between 1850 and 1910? And why, having attained that kind of eminence, did Rossetti's star decline so precipitously with the advent of Modernism? Finally, what is there about Rossetti's work and its historical aftermath that makes these questions important ones to ask? The cultural and aesthetic problems raised by those questions are the subject of this fascinating book. Jerome McGann, an eminent authority on Rossetti, demonstrates the programmatic aims of Rossetti's innovative multimedia work by focusing on two issues, one philosophical and one cultural. First, McGann shows how in Rossetti's work high-order thinking processes are modeled and executed as aesthetic practices. Second, from Rossetti's Pre-Raphaelite 'art of the inner standing point' McGann argues that Rossetti forces a revision of the cultural norms commonly used for evaluating artistic success and failure.

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9780300080230

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"""This is a major reevaluation of Dante Gabriel Rossetti as a writer and an artist. There is no better critic of the Rossettis than McGann. His analysis consistently makes us re-envision their work, and his criticism in this book is once again groundbreaking."" Linda Peterson, Yale University"

McGann (Media/Univ. of Virginia) examines the poetry and paintings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti in an effort to determine why the artists stature, so high between 1850 and 1910, fell dramatically with the rise of Modernism.McGann cautions that [i]t is perhaps a bad idea to try elucidating Rossettis work with the blunt instrument of critical prose, but with that dull tool McGann manages to create a precise portrait of Rossetti and his contributions to the cultural milieu of Victorian England. Praising Rossetti for his aesthetic tastes and his confidence in his artistic judgment, McGann sketches a portrait of this artist who dominated the worlds of both art and letters: Rossettis poems and paintings are analyzed side by side in order to illustrate the interconnection of word and image. As a member of the pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Rossetti desired a return to the direct and unmediated depiction of nature, as evidenced in Italian painting prior to the High Renaissance and the literary work of Dante. Beyond his work as a painter and poet, McGann describes how Rossetti was concerned with the form of art: textual materiality and graphic design provided impetus for much of his innovation. Modernists rebelled against Rossetti since he represented the height of Victorian art, but McGann uncovers overlaps between Modernism and Rossetti suggesting that Modern tenets of art were present in Rossettis work. Although not a biographer, the author includes moments from Rossettis life that illuminate his ouevre (such as when he buries a manuscript of poetry with his dead wife but then later digs it up to revise his words).The game that McGann refers to is art, which can never fully fulfill its mission or be rendered perfectly in its execution. Nonetheless, if both Rossetti and McGann must eventually lose their game, their efforts are stronger than most. (Kirkus Reviews)

This is a major reevaluation of Dante Gabriel Rossetti as a writer and an artist. There is no better critic of the Rossettis than McGann. His analysis consistently makes us re-envision their work, and his criticism in this book is once again groundbreaking. Linda Peterson, Yale University

Author Information

Jerome McGann is the John Stewart Bryan University Professor, University of Virginia, and the Thomas Holloway Professor of Victorian Media and Culture, Royal Holloway College, University of London. He is the editor of the ongoing Complete Writings and Pictures of Dante Gabriel Rossetti: A Hypermedia Research Archive.

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