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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Dress And Womanhood Of Ancient Rome, Eliza Burbano
Dress And Womanhood Of Ancient Rome, Eliza Burbano
Honors Theses
Fashion transcends its own role of imagery, as it becomes the medium through which individuals express their place in society. Fashion history would not consider the ancient world as part of the history of the discipline. Nevertheless, the function of dress in ancient cultures like that of Rome has definitely helped shape social hierarchies that are still present today. Clothing structured Roman society deeply, just as class, race, and sexuality did. Scholar Kelly Olson (2002) defines the function of clothing as part of a sign system. This study argues that dress in ancient Rome goes beyond this idea, in that …
'And I Am A Material Girl': How Aesthetics And Material Culture Fashion Femininity In Edith Wharton's The Age Of Innocence, From Text To Film, Avery Novitch
Honors Theses
This thesis explores the role of aesthetics and material culture in Edith Wharton’s 1920 novel The Age of Innocence and in Martin Scorsese’s 1993 film adaptation. In Wharton’s Old New York, material opulence is arguably the most essential aspect of culture. Newland Archer is the primary authority on fashion and taste within the narrative, and is thus charged with enforcing standards of socially constructed Victorian femininity with regard to his two romantic interests, May Welland and Ellen Olenska. Scorsese’s film uses mise-en-scène to echo the detail rich design aesthetic found in Wharton’s prose; however, the film’s abandonment of Newland’s distinctly …