The women’s fashion of the second half of the 19th century in caricature Cover Image

La mode féminine de la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle dans la caricature iconographique et littéraire
The women’s fashion of the second half of the 19th century in caricature

Author(s): Zofia Stępińska-Kucza
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Literary Texts, Studies of Literature, Comparative Study of Literature, French Literature, Theory of Literature
Published by: Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II, Instytut Filologii Romańskiej & Wydawnictwo Werset
Keywords: caricature; satire; fashion; crinoline; woman; Bertall

Summary/Abstract: The present paper analyzes the relationship between the caricature and the women’s fashion of the second half of the 19th century. The period was favorable for fashion caricature, because, while reflecting the political, economic and social transformations of the time, the clothing trends endorsed at the time by fashion magazines were based on the exaggeration and distortion that we identify among the weapons of humorists. The first part of the paper focuses on the graphical representation of fashion, in particular of the crinoline, and aims to discover the messages hidden in those illustrations. The second part analyzes the motif of the fashion and the clothing in the Bertall’s satirical text, Comédie de notre temps, and tries to define the image of the woman at that time and her role in the French bourgeois society.

  • Issue Year: 2020
  • Issue No: 10
  • Page Range: 133-144
  • Page Count: 12
  • Language: French