The Color of Angels
Cosmology, Gender, and the Aesthetic Imagination
Description:... 4e de couv.: The color of angels explores the rich sensory symbolism of Western culture through the ages. In the process, Constance Classen uncovers the gender politics behind such cultural constructs as the "male gaze" and the "female touch" and traces the development of an aesthetics of the senses from medieval mysticism to modern art. The book is divided into three parts - cosmology, gender and aesthetic - and explores topics ranging from the sensuous visions of St Hildegard of Bingen to the gender codes of Renaissance literature and the machine aesthetics of futurism. Through its focus on the social construction of sensory meaning in different periods and domains, The color of angels contributes to a history of sensibilities. The book's analysis of the relationship between sensory and gender orders, in turn, reveals a crucial but previously unexplored area of women's history.
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