Beyond Aura: Art as Object of Historical Knowledge in the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

This dissertation turns to the originary moment of historicism to investigate what it meant for British culture to treat artworks (from architecture to literary texts) as expressions of historical knowledge in the nineteenth century. It argues that from its inception, historicism (i.e. the idea that cultural products are best understood through a study of their historical contexts) was seen as a problematic project that was impossible to realize fully. However, the British used this historicized understanding of artworks to further their imperial agenda. The project brings together an archive that ranges from canonical works of literature, visual representations of Shakespeare’s plays, to the reception history of Byzantine art in Britain. Ultimately, it offers a historicist account of historicism, and argues political problems arising from artworks’ complex history cannot be resolved through either the adoption or the rejection of historicist methodology.