Date of Award
2018
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
English
Abstract
In an expansion of Jerome McGann's claims for a "materialist aesthetic" as the defining feature of William Morris's Kelmscott Press books, this dissertation maintains that Morris's book designs are the fullest expression of an Arts and Crafts interpretive model that Morris established over his career as a designer and a craftsman and that decisively intervenes in traditional theoretical discussions of the distinctions between the visual and verbal arts. This dissertation demonstrates that Morris's book designs are predicated on the user's interpretive engagement with the material object to bring together word and image, form and function, and decoration and design in terms of Morris's Arts and Crafts model of interpretive use. By reframing our understanding of text and image in Victorian interpretation, this dissertation provides a means of unifying critical understanding of Morris's wide-ranging oeuvre, reveals his contribution to Victorian aesthetics, and expands our theoretical understanding of the interpretive relationship between word, image, and the reader.
Recommended Citation
Molby, Brandiann, "The User, the Reader, and the Pocket Cathedral: William Morris's Arts and Crafts Aesthetic and the Decorated Book" (2018). Dissertations. 2830.
https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/2830
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Copyright Statement
Copyright © 2018 Brandiann Molby
Comments
The dissertation is made available with some images redacted due to licensing requirements. The unredacted version of the dissertation is available by request only.