Dovzhik, A. K. Addressees of Aubrey Beardsley’s Works: Sexual Codes of the ‘Narrow Circle of Friends’

Abstract: The subject under review is Aubrey Bersley’s paintings and extracts from his erotic novel ‘Under the Hill’ published in The Savoy Journal in 1896. The purpose of the present research article is to show that the academic interpretations of Bersley’s works showing the Victorian audience as being homogenous and unified aren’t quite right. For this purpose, the author of the article studies rhetoric and techniques used by Bersley in his works and describes the target audience Bersley could have addressed his works to. Contextualization of Bersley’s writings proves that his writings were nothing else but structured exclusive subcultural codes that could not have been read by most of Bersley’s contemporaries. Implicit addressees of Bersley’s works were experts in the backstreet pornography, homosexual men and members of the closed society of decadents of the 1890th whose icon was Oscar Wilde even before he was arrested for homosexual relations. The approach used by the author of the article shows how inconsistent and different Bersley’s audience was. The author also questions the academic point of view on the common perception of Bersley by Victorians.

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