The 'F' word : Viewing literature as fashionable and fashion as literary

Abstract

The following dissertation endeavours to make a case for fashion and literature being considered and studied in light of each other -largely suggesting the need, based on a number of points, for the treatment of fashion as a rewarding and worthy area of investigation within literary theory. Starting from a critique of Roland Barthes' The Fashion System and drawing on a number of sources from the fields of fashion and literary theory, the dissertation explores concepts including the diachronic nature of fashion; the consideration of detail; the vintage revolution; fashion as a reflection of ideology and its consequent ascension to the status of art by Oscar Wilde and the decadents; the philosophical mistrust of fashion; gendered dress and costume parallelisms between fashion and literary theory; and the transience equated with beauty versus the notion of timeless, culminating in fashion's ability to 'tell a story' that is arguably akin to literature.