Tender violence: domestic visions in an age of U.S. imperialism

Abstract

"In a groundbreaking approach to the study of photography, Wexler raises up these images as "texts" to be analyzed alongside other texts of the period for what they say about the discourses of power. As images viewed in public venues, these photographs contributed to the way late-nineteenth-century Americans imagined and understood the world and their place in it. Despite wide variations in subject matter, Wexler argues, they helped advance a notion of a domestic sphere that differentiated "civilized" Americans from a variety of people considered not adequately cultured."--Jacket.

Contents

What a woman can do with a camera -- Seeing sentiment: photography, race, and the innocent eye -- Tender violence: domestic photographs, domestic fictions, and educational reform -- Black and white and color: The Hampton Album -- Käsebier's Indians -- The domestic unconscious -- The missing link.