New Perspectives on the History of Facial Hair: Framing the Face

Description

This volume brings together a range of scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds to re-examine the histories of facial hair and its place in discussions of gender, the military, travel and art, amongst others. Chapters in the first section of the collection explore the intricate history of beard wearing and shaving, including facial hair fashions in long historical perspective, and the depiction of beards in portraiture. Section Two explores the shifting meanings of the moustache, both as a manly symbol in the nineteenth century, and also as the focus of the material culture of personal grooming. The final section of the collection charts the often-complex relationship between men, women and facial hair. It explores how women used facial hair to appropriate masculine identity, and how women’s own hair was read as a sign of excessive and illicit sexuality. Front Matter ....Pages i-xv Introduction (Alun Withey, Jennifer Evans)....Pages 1-11 Front Matter ....Pages 13-13 Social Science, Gender Theory and the History of Hair (Christopher Oldstone-Moore)....Pages 15-32 ‘The Very Head and Front of My Offending’: Beards, Portraiture and Self-Presentation in Early Modern England (Margaret Pelling)....Pages 33-67 Hair, Beards and the Fashioning of English Manhood in Early Modern Travel Texts (Eleanor Rycroft)....Pages 69-89 Beardless Young Men? Facial Hair and the Construction of Masculinity in Nineteenth-Century Spanish Self-Portraits (M. Victoria Alonso Cabezas)....Pages 91-108 Making Facial Hair Modern: Shaving and Hirsuteness in Post-war Britain (Mark Anderson)....Pages 109-129 A Tiny Cloak of Privilege: Facial Hair and Story Telling (Helen Casey)....Pages 131-146 Front Matter ....Pages 147-147 Combing Masculine Identity in the Age of the Moustache, 1860–1900 (Sharon Twickler)....Pages 149-168 Whiskers at War: Moustaches, Masculinity and the Military in Twentieth-Century Britain (Alice White)....Pages 169-185 Front Matter ....Pages 187-187 ‘We’ll Imagine, Madam, You Have a Beard’: Beards and Early Female Playwrights (Morwenna Carr)....Pages 189-211 Shades of Facial Hairiness at the French Court: The Case of Marie-Joséphine of Savoy, Countess of Provence (Aurore Chéry)....Pages 213-233 Back Matter ....Pages 235-249