Description
Book SynopsisDancing out of Line transports readers back to the 1840s, when the craze for social and stage dancing forced Victorians into a complex relationship with the moving body in its most voluble, volatile form.By
Trade Review“The scope of Engelhardt’s research on Victorian dance and its cultural resonances is truly impressive, and the volume includes a number of wonderful anecdotes, examples, and illustrations from the dance history archives.…Engelhardt’s style is refreshing and fun—she weaves in casual references to popular culture, such as the high-school prom, hip hop, and
Dirty Dancing—encouraging readers to see links between our own culture of dance and that of the Victorians with regard to topics such as socialization and courtship.” * Victorian Studies *
“Engelhardt’s study is thorough and smart. Her commitment to underscoring the limitations of the Foucauldian and Freudian approaches informing other scholarly work on dance is exciting.” * Victoriographies *
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Dancing Out of Line makes the compelling case that understanding the social ritual of Victorian dance is a necessary prerequisite for grasping the Victorian construct of femininity. It is an outstanding work of feminist cultural studies and essential reading for any scholar of nineteenth-century social history.” * Journal of British Studies *
“Like its topic, Dancing out of Line knows how to move: the pacing is brisk, the voice is up-tempo, and the historical narrative is insistent but light on its feet. In tracing the complex patterns of nineteenth-century dance and its novelistic representations, Engelhardt doesn't miss a step.” * author of Theater Figures: The Production of the Nineteenth-Century British Novel *
“Evidencing considerable scholarship, this well-written book deals with a subject little examined in literary study, provides interesting reading, and suits the current literary climate.” * Choice *
Table of Contents* List of Illustrations * Preface * Acknowledgments * Introduction: The Natural Accidents of Dancing * Chapter One: Jane Austen and the Semiotics of Dance The Manner of Reading * Chapter Two: Reckless Debutantes and the Spectacle of "Coming Out" * Chapter Three: Sylphs in the Parlor ... Catch Them If You Can * Chapter Four: Seeds of Discontent Dance Manias, Medical Inquiry, and Victorian (Ill) Health * Chapter Five: The Mourning After Dancing the Victorians Past * Coda * Notes * Bibliography * Index
