States of Undress: Nakedness and the Colonial Imagination

The politics and aesthetics of nakedness was, for Victorians, both complex and slippery, the result of ambivalent nineteenth-century attitudes toward the unclothed body. This essay argues that such vexed attitudes about nudity and nakedness in Victorian Britain cannot fully be comprehended without reference to the experience of empire. Colonialism's seemingly timeless fascination with indigenous undress provoked a number of questions about human difference, evolution, and the nature of civilization. Analyzing different readings of nakedness in the worlds of science (especially anthropology), high art, and popular culture, this essay examines the enduring association between savagery and the lack of clothing.