Aubrey Beardsley, Dandy of the Grotesque
by Associate Professor of English Chris Snodgrass, Chris Snodgrass
Category: Science

This book analyses Beardsley's most characteristic works, clarifying why his art is indispensable to understanding fin-de-siècle Victorian culture. Beardsley's various grotesque figures serve as emblems of `monstrous' metaphysical contortion, even as his elegant designs simultaneously recuperate such dislocations formalistically. Alternating between an urge to outrage and a craving for authority, Beardsley's elegant designs and `dandy' sensibilityeffect what might be called a `caricature' of traditional canonical meaning.