Emma Horst

Dissertation Summary

Aesthetics as Form and Beauty: The Politics of Sensationalism in Scenes of Nineteenth-Century Transatlantic Fiction analyzes the racialized aesthetics of womanhood in British and American sensation novels of the 1860s. By examining the works of Julia C. Collins, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Louisa May Alcott, Hannah Crafts, and Wilkie Collins, this project demonstrates how each text complicates the Angel in the House gender and racial construct while, for the most part, remaining within white supremacist, patriarchal frameworks. The complication, expansion, or subversion of culturally dominant ideas of idealized white womanhood occurs through the novels' various appeals to visuality and use of aesthetic forms—such as extended descriptions of women’s bodies in portraiture and tableaux, the sensationalization of hair, and characters’ use of cosmetics (especially hair dye and skin whitener).  

Education

BA in English and Secondary Education from Loras College (2016); MA in English from Loyola University Chicago (2020)

Research Interests

Transatlantic Studies, Critical Whiteness Studies, Women's & Gender Studies, Visual Studies, Cultural Studies, Aesthetic Theory, Aestheticism, Pre-Raphaelite Art, Sensationalism, Sentimentalism, Cosmetics & Beauty Culture