Class Description
The Dandy has been a figure in Western social life and culture for over two centuries. Beyond his choices in style and fashion, the Dandy creates a persona by playing with notions of individuality, gender, sexuality, race, and social class. This seminar will explore the many facets and types of the Dandy, concentrating on the figure’s heyday in nineteenth-century literature and visual culture, from Beau Brummell to Oscar Wilde. The final session will discuss Dandy legacies in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Jeff Nigro is an adjunct lecturer at the Art Institute of Chicago and an instructor in Adult Education at the Newberry Library.
What to Expect
Format: In Person
Class Capacity: 24
Class Style: Mix of lecture and discussion; participation encouraged
Materials List
Required
- Digital Course Packet
First Assignment
- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Pelham, or the Adventures of a Gentleman (1826): “Preface to the Second Edition”, pp. xxxiii-xxxv; Chapter VII, pp. 175-180
A Brief Syllabus
- Beau Brummell and the Regency Dandy
- Count Alfred d’Orsay and the Romantic Dandy
- Benjamin Disraeli and the Victorian Dandy
- Charles Baudelaire and the Modern Dandy
- Oscar Wilde and the Decadent Dandy
- From Hollywood to Hip Hop: Dandy Legacies in the 20th Century
Cost and Registration
6 Sessions, $270 ($243 for Newberry members, seniors, and students). Learn about becoming a member.
We offer our classes at three different price options: Regular ($270), Community Supported ($250), and Sponsor ($290). Following the models of other institutions, we want to ensure that our classes are accessible to a wider audience while continuing to support our instructors. You may choose the price that best fits your situation when registering through Learning Stream.
To register multiple people for this class, please go through the course calendar in Learning Stream, our registration platform. When you select the course and register, you’ll be prompted to add another registrant.
Having trouble signing up? Take a look at our step-by-step guide to registration by clicking here.
RegisterThe views and opinions expressed in this class and/or by the instructor are not necessarily representative of the Newberry. We aim to ensure that in our classes, participants can have respectful disagreement to foster critical thinking. This is a space to challenge and expand our own worldviews to work towards better understanding and appreciating humanity.
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