Reclaiming Spaces of Learning in Anna Jameson's Diary of an Ennuyée

Abstract

Anna Jameson was a woman writer who explored and embraced multiple genres, and whose career as an author and art historian encompassed both the early nineteenth-century shift from Romantic to Victorian ideals and the emergence of the public museum in England. Focusing on Jameson's first published work, Diary of an Ennuyée, the author examines the overlap of gendered writing genres and class- and gender-based museum guides. Through her familiarity with and employment of both, Jameson recognized the limitations of art appreciation felt by women and the working classes—limitations that arose from middle- and upper-class males' monopolization of forms of art education and their control over how and what related information was dispensed to the other sexes and classes. The author concludes that Diary of an Ennuyée indicates Jameson's attempt, albeit nascent, at acknowledging that these men controlled information and the ways in which all individuals viewed and appreciated art. Similarly, allowing the narrator to explore unconventional or personalized forms of art appreciation and by allowing her to confidently express opinions about artistic technique art exhibition practices, Jameson validates for her female readers that they can and should experience art in any way they choose.