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Victorian legs

Degeneracy, disability, decorum, desire

By Clayton Tarr

Victorian legs
Hardcover -
  • Price: £85.00
  • ISBN: 9781526188953
  • Publish Date: Jul 2025
  • Publisher: Manchester University Press
  • Pre-Order £85.00

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    Book Information

    Description

    Victorian legs is about the science (sometimes spurious) and sexuality (often frivolous) of legs during the Victorian period. The book argues that legs occupy a particularly vexed position in Victorian culture. Strong legs formed the foundation (or the columns) of the civilized subject, but the politics of who could show their legs remained gendered. For the most part, men exhibited and admired, while women concealed and demurred. This book not only joins and advances the lively critical discourse on the Victorian body, but also marks new paths to pursue. While legs made us human, they could also dehumanize.

    Contents

    Introduction: Bifurcated beings
    Part I: Degeneracy-Backpedaling
    1 Atrophy in The Time Machine
    2 Atavism in Heart of Darkness
    Part II: Disability-Cane and able
    3 Prosthesis in Our Mutual Friend
    4 Posthuman in The Law and the Lady
    Part III: Decorum-Right ankles
    5 Form in Barchester Towers
    6 Reform in Armadale
    Part IV: Desire-Calf worship
    7 Muscle in Barnaby Rudge
    8 Masculinity in King Solomon's Mines
    Conclusion: See legs
    Index

    Author

    Clayton Carlyle Tarr is Assistant Teaching Professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte

    Victorian legs

    By Clayton Tarr

    Hardcover £85.00 / $130.00

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