Comments on: The gender of reading

By: Läsande kvinnor vid fönster « Tchoupitoulas

Läsande kvinnor vid fönster « Tchoupitoulas — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 10:51:50 +0000

[...] The Gender of Reading del ett, del två, del [...]

By: Roy Booth

Roy Booth — Wed, 03 May 2006 15:43:03 +0000

Most interesting post. I set off at a tangent from it, away from the gender issue, to pursue the matter of which were the texts to be seen with on the early modern tube train.
I see you have new posts which I must read.

By: Kristine

Kristine — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 18:47:08 +0000

Thank you misteraitch! I suspected that woodcut might be DÃ¼rer’s, but couldn’t find the image online.

By: misteraitch

misteraitch — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 09:58:34 +0000

The woodcut in the comment above is apparently one of DÃ¼rer’s. Here’s an example of a painting of a woman with books, but not reading them: Sogni by Vittorio Corcos. Coincidentally, while looking for an image of this painting on-line, I happened upon another image of Marilyn Monroe reading.

By: peacay

peacay — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 11:31:02 +0000

I didn’t typo on purpose, honest!

I ‘know’ Brandon Kershner from the Joyce email group (he is a pro; I am strictly amateur and lately lazy). That is of course how I knew about the Monroe shot — I have a vague memory that there were other shots, but this could be my bad memory again.
[You could even attend an International Joycean conference chaired by Brandy in June in Budapest! Email me if you reallllllly want the details. Heh]

In fact I’ve seen another Joyce listee mentioned here a while ago….Tim Lovell-Smith. You’re a radar for the JJ-set obviously

By: Kristine

Kristine — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 09:13:05 +0000

OK, now I see why I need a comment preview ;o)

Thanks for the Monroe! You don’t need to do the theorizing on that one, Richard Brown was there before you. See also his essay “Marilyn Monroe Reading Ulysses: Goddess or Post-Cultural Cyborg?” in Joyce and Popular Culture, ed. R.B. Kershner, 1996.

By: peacay

peacay — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 08:11:26 +0000

(damn)

Link : Marilyn Monroe reading Ulysees [my words/link got eaten or something].

By: peacay

peacay — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 08:09:40 +0000

I’m not sure what this one says about the theorizing but . Just for umm….balance, like.

By: Kristine

Kristine — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 08:20:38 +0000

Good point, Helmer! In the case of the naked women reading I signalled during my Google search, such as this one, an erotic element can hardly be denied (I do not recall seeing any naked men reading, by the way). But perhaps there is even more of an erotics to reading in paintings that posit the viewer as a voyeur.

Although one might nog at first sight say that there is much erotics involved in Pieter Jansens Elinga’s reading woman (top-left in my post), the perspective is interesting. It is as if we are standing in the doorway of the room she is in, and are secretly watching her. She’s kicked off her red shoes and is withdrawn into the privacy of her book, unaware of our presence.

Or consider an image such as this one, where we are reading along with a woman over her shoulder, while she remains absorbed in her text:

The different perspectives on reading that a Google Search throws up, are interesting. Is the reader recorded from behind, from the side, from the front? I think these are factors in the erotics of reading, as is the question of where a person is reading, and what. The two portraits of men in my post can hardly be called erotic: they are depicted from the front, and there is no element of voyeurism involved. But what about depictions of men reading in a private environment, instead of in their studies? Is there an erotics of reading in this painting by John Singer Sargent, do you think?

http://www.jssgallery.org/ Paintings/Man_Readng(2).htm” target=”new” rel=”nofollow”>

Oh, and for those who don’t remember Phil Bloom, here she is.

Update: via Bitch PhD, a link to an online essay on the male gaze and advertizing, which, among many illustrations from the world of advertizing, contains this interesting image (unattributed — anyone know where it is from?):

By: Helmer

Helmer — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 19:30:12 +0000

I wasn’t born yet, but somehow I do remember Phil Bloom, the first naked woman on Dutch television in 1967, reading a gigantic newspaper. What about the erotics of reading?