Table Of ContentGendering Orientalism
To what extent did white European women contribute to the im
perial cultures of the second half of the nineteenth century?
In contrast to most cultural histories of imperialism, which
analyse Orientalist images of rather than by women, Gendering
Orientalism focuses on how women themselves contributed.
Drawing on the little-known work of Henriette Browne, other
'lost' women Orientalist artists and the literary works of George
Eliot, the author challenges masculinist assumptions relating to
the stability and homogeneity of the Orientalist gaze.
GenderingOrienta/ism argues that women did not havestraight
forward access to an implicitly male position of Western
superiority.Their relationship to the shifting terms of race, nation
and gender produced positions from which women writers and
artists could articulate alternative representations of racial differ
encc. In order to draw out how the meanings attributed to their
words and images, as well as to the writers and artists themselves,
were specifically gendered, classed and racialized, the author
examines women's visual and literary Orientalism through their
contemporary reception in the press.
By revealing the extent of women's involvement in the popular
field of visual Orientalism and highlighting the presence of
Orientalist themes and structures in the work of Browne, Eliot
and Charlotte Bronte, Gendering Orienta/ism argues for a more
complex understanding of women's role in imperial culture and
discourse. The book should appeal to all students and lecturers
in cultural studies, literature, art history, women's studies and
visual anthropology.
Reina Lewis is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Cultural
Studies at the University of East London.
Gender, Racism, Ethnicity
Series editors:
Kum-Kum Bhavnani, University of California at Santa Barbara;
Avtar Brah, University of London;
Gail Lewis, The Open University;
Ann Phoenix, University of London
Gender, Racism, Ethnicity is a new series whose main concern
is to promote rigorous feminist analysis of the intersections
between gender, racism, ethnicity, class and sexuality within the
contexts of imperialism, colonialism and nco-colonialism.
Intended to contribute new perspectives to current debates and
to introduce fresh analysis, it will provide valuable teaching texts
for undergraduates, lecturers and researchers in anthropology,
women's studies, cultural studies and sociology.
Other titles in the series:
White Women, Race Matters
Ruth Frankenberg
Fear of the Dark
Lola Young
Gendering Orientalism
Race, Femininity and
Representation
Reina Lewis
i~
London and New York
First published 1996
by Routledge
2Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OXl4 4RN
SimultaneouslypublishedintheUSAandCanada
byRoutledge
270MadisonAve,NewYorkNY10016
Reprinted2003
Routledgeisan imprint a/the Taylor&Francis Group
Transferred toDigital Printing2005
© 1996 Reina Lewis
Typesetin Times by Florencetype Ltd, Stoodleigh, Devon
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the
British Library
Library ofCongress Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book has been requested
ISBN 0-415-12489-1 (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-12490-5 (pbk)
For my parents,
Estelle Lewis and Hilly Lewis
Contents
List of plates ix
Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction:making connections 1
1 Race - femininity - representation 12
Said's Orientalism and his critics 15
Problems with the 'death ofthe Author' 22
Writers, readers and critics 30
Women representing the other: Villette 35
2 Professional opportunities for women in art and
literature 53
The separate spheres:problems ofa professional
identity 53
Opportunities for women in art 56
Opportunities for women in literature 67
Nation, empire and culture 73
3 Gender, genre and nation: Henriette Browne, the
making of a woman Orientalist artist 85
The reception of Browne'sreligious works in Britain
and France 86
Making a name:the establishment ofBrowne's artistic
identity in Britain 97
Orientalism in the visual arts 109
4 'Only women should go to Turkey': Henriette Browne
and the female OrientaJist gaze 127
Critical responses to Browne's Harem Interiors, 1861 129
Using experience to challenge stereotypes: women
write about the harem 144
viii Contents
The female gaze 161
From the subjective to the objective: ethnographic
discourses ofraceand nation 171
The problematic authority ofthe female Orientalist gaze 178
5 Aliens at home and Britons abroad:George Eliot's
Orientalization of Jewsin Daniel Deronda 191
Evolution, organicism, fiction and Jews:contemporary
responses to Daniel Deronda 193
Daniel Deronda and the formation ofan Anglo-Jewish
identity 201
George Eliot and Jewish sources 207
Shifting stereotypes:origins, heredity, identity 212
Distance and difference: the problems ofreading
Daniel Deronda 221
Afterword:Gendering Orientalism 236
Select bibliography 242
Index 259
Plates
Plate 1 Henriette Browne, Les soeurs de charite, The Sisters of
Charity, 1859. Oil on canvas, 101.6 x 78.7cm. © 1992
Sotheby's, Inc. Courtesy of Sotheby's Inc., New York.
Plate2 Henriette Browne, La pharmacie, interieur, The Convent
Dispensary, 1859. Materials and dimensions unknown.
Photograph:theWitt Library, CourtauldInstituteofArt.
Plate3 Rosa Bonheur, The Horse Fair, 1855. Oil on canvas,
120 x 254cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, gift of
Cornelius Vanderbilt, 1887 (87.25).
Plate4 ElizabethButler, LadyThompson, Callingthe RollAfter
an Engagement (The Roll Call), 1874. Oil on canvas, 91
x 182.9cm.The Royal Collection © HerMajesty Queen
Elizabeth II.
Plate5 Jean-Leon Gerome, Phryne Before theAreopagus, 1861.
Oil on canvas, 80 x 128cm. Hamburger Kunsthalle.
Plate6 Charles Collins, Convent Thoughts, 1851.Oil on canvas,
82.6 x 57.8cm. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
Plate7 John Everett Millais, The Vale of Rest, 1859. Oil on
canvas, 102.9 x 172.7cm. Tate Gallery, London.
Plate8 Alfred Elmore, The Novice, 1852. Oil on canvas, 73.7 x
90.2cm. Engraving after the painting in the ArtJournal,
no. 27, 1865. Courtesy of the Board of Trustees of
Victoria and Albert Museum.
Plate9 Henriette Browne, Le catechisme, The Catechism, 1857.
Oil on canvas, 54 x 46cm. Photograph courtesy of
Sotheby's, London.
Plate10 Charles Cope, The Young Mother, 1846. Oil on panel,
31.2 x 26cm. Courtesy of the Board of Trustees of
Victoria and Albert Museum.
x Plates
Plate11 Jean-Leon Gerome, Slave Market, n.d. Oil on canvas,
84.3 x 63cm. Stirling and Francine Clarke Art Institute,
Williamstown, Massachusetts.
Plate12 Henriette Browne, Une joueuse de flute (interieur de
harem, Constantinople, 1860), A Flute Player (Harem
Interior; Constantinople, 1860), 1861. Oil on canvas,
dimensions unknown. Photograph courtesy of the
departement des livres imprimes, Bibliotheque
Nationale, Paris.
Plate 13 Henriette Browne, Une visite (interieur de harem,
Constantinople, 1860), A Visit (Harem Interior; Con
stantinople, 1860), 1861. Oil on canvas, 86 x 114cm.
Photograph courtesy of Sotheby's, London.
Plate14 Alexandre Gabriel Decamps, The Turkish School,
1843. Materials and dimensions unknown. Amsterdams
Historisch Museum - Fodor Collection.
Plate15 John Frederick Lewis, The Arab Scribe, Cairo, 1852.
Watercolour heightened with white, 46.3 x 60.9cm.
Bridgeman Art Library.
Plate16 John Frederick Lewis, The Reception, 1873. Oil on
canvas, 63.5 x n.6cm. Yale Centre for British Art, Paul
Mellon Collection.
Plate 17 John Frederick Lewis, The Siesta, 1876. Oil on canvas,
87.5 x 109.4cm. The Tate Gallery, London.
Plate 18 Jean-Auguste-DominiqueIngres, Bain Turq, The Turkish
Bath, 1862. Oil on canvas, 108cm diameter. Cliches des
Musees Nationaux - Paris. © Photo R.M.N.
Plate19 Jean-Jules-Antoine Lecomtede Nouy, L'esclave blanche,
The White Slave, 1888. Oil on canvas, 146 x 118cm.
Cliche Ville de Nantes - P.Jean.
Plate20 MariaHarrietMatthias, Crusader Castle, Gracia,Gulfof
Akaba, (detail) 1857.watercolour,23.5x 35cm.Courtesy
ofthe BoardofTrusteesofVictoriaand AlbertMuseum.
Plate21 Margaret Murray Cookesley, Nubian Girl, 1886.
Materials and dimensions unknown. Courtesy Mathaf
Gallery, London.
Plate22 Margaret Murray Cookesley, Entertaining in the Harem,
1894.Oil on canvas, 29 x 39cm. Photograph courtesy of
Sotheby's, London.
Plate23 MargaretMurrayCookesley,SmokingthePipe,1893.Oil
on panel, 30x 46cm. Courtesy MathafGallery, London.
