Sexuality in Aubrey Beardsleys Story of Venus and Tannhäuser Essay

Sexuality in Aubrey Beardsleys account of genus genus genus Venus and Tannh user Aubrey Beardsley wrote The Story of Venus and Tannhuser during the fin de sicle, the end of the straitlaced Era. This decadent work, following Baudelaires church doctrine artifice for arts involvement first of all, portrays depend upon and sexualities in a playful manner. In increase to mocking established prim moral codes, and parodying pornographic conventions, The Story of Venus and Tannhuser in like manner supports Foucaults idea that the Victorian Era witnessed a dissemination of sexualities.The Story of Venus and Tannhuser was originally toned down and modify for publication in 1897 in The Savoy, a magazine that Beardsley served as art editor, under the championship of Under The Hill. According to Stanley Weintraub, Venus and Tannhuser was the literally undisciplined and Rabelaisian original. But the longer manuscripts Venus first eight chapters had sufficed for barely four refashioned chapters of the purified and playfully footnoted Savoy text Under the Hill (168).Venus and Tannhuser is a decadent work, though the destination decadent is difficult to define. As Elaine Showalter notes, the term had antithetical connotations at the end of the century. On the one hand, it was the pejorative pronounce applied by the bourgeoisie to everything that seemed unnatural (169). But artists who embraced decadence as an aesthetic credo . . .rejected all that was natural and biological in favor of the inner conduct of art, artifice, sensation and imagination (170). Heather Henderson and William Sharpe note that these opponent connotations are typically combined in standard definitions of the term, since In nearly cases the word decadent suggested an ultra-refined edification of taste allied wit... ...ory of Venus and Tannhuser. Aesthetes and Decadents of the 1890s An Anthology of British meter and Prose. Ed. Karl Beckson. Chicago Academy, 1981. 9-46.Foucault, Michel. T he record of Sexuality An Introduction. Vol 1. advanced York Vintage, 1978.Gillette, Paul J. Introduction. The Story of Venus and Tannhuser. By Aubrey Beardsley. crude York Award, 1967. 21-67.Henderson, Heather, and William Sharpe. Aestheticism, Decadence, and the Fin de Sicle. The Longman Anthology of British Literature The Victorian Age. Ed. Heather Henderson and William Sharpe. New York Longman, 1999. 1936-1938.Showalter, Elaine. Sexual Anarchy Gender and Culture at the Fin de Sicle. New York Penguin, 1990.Weintraub, Stanley. Beardsley A Biography. New York Braziller, 1967.Zatlin, Linda G. Beardsley Redresses Venus. Victorian poem 28.3-4 (1990) 111-124. Sexuality in Aubrey Beardsleys Story of Venus and Tannhuser EssaySexuality in Aubrey Beardsleys Story of Venus and Tannhuser Aubrey Beardsley wrote The Story of Venus and Tannhuser during the fin de sicle, the end of the Victorian Era. This decadent work, following Baudelaires credo art for arts sake first of al l, portrays sex and sexualities in a playful manner. In addition to mocking conventional Victorian moral codes, and parodying pornographic conventions, The Story of Venus and Tannhuser also supports Foucaults idea that the Victorian Era witnessed a diffusion of sexualities.The Story of Venus and Tannhuser was originally toned down and modified for publication in 1897 in The Savoy, a magazine that Beardsley served as art editor, under the title of Under The Hill. According to Stanley Weintraub, Venus and Tannhuser was the literally undisciplined and Rabelaisian original. But the longer manuscripts Venus first eight chapters had sufficed for only four refashioned chapters of the purified and playfully footnoted Savoy text Under the Hill (168).Venus and Tannhuser is a decadent work, though the term decadent is difficult to define. As Elaine Showalter notes, the term had antithetical connotations at the end of the century. On the one hand, it was the pejorative label applied by the bour geoisie to everything that seemed unnatural (169). But artists who embraced decadence as an aesthetic credo . . .rejected all that was natural and biological in favor of the inner life of art, artifice, sensation and imagination (170). Heather Henderson and William Sharpe note that these opposing connotations are typically combined in standard definitions of the term, since In most cases the word decadent suggested an ultra-refined sophistication of taste allied wit... ...ory of Venus and Tannhuser. Aesthetes and Decadents of the 1890s An Anthology of British Poetry and Prose. Ed. Karl Beckson. Chicago Academy, 1981. 9-46.Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality An Introduction. Vol 1. New York Vintage, 1978.Gillette, Paul J. Introduction. The Story of Venus and Tannhuser. By Aubrey Beardsley. New York Award, 1967. 21-67.Henderson, Heather, and William Sharpe. Aestheticism, Decadence, and the Fin de Sicle. The Longman Anthology of British Literature The Victorian Age. Ed. Heathe r Henderson and William Sharpe. New York Longman, 1999. 1936-1938.Showalter, Elaine. Sexual Anarchy Gender and Culture at the Fin de Sicle. New York Penguin, 1990.Weintraub, Stanley. Beardsley A Biography. New York Braziller, 1967.Zatlin, Linda G. Beardsley Redresses Venus. Victorian Poetry 28.3-4 (1990) 111-124.