Aging Faces and Gowland’s Lotion in Austen’s Persuasion (1817)

Authors

  • June Oh Michigan State University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7146/ageculturehumanities.v5i.130862

Keywords:

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Abstract

Sir Walter Elliot, a conceited aristocrat in Jane Austen’s Persuasion (1817), takes it as a personal affront when he sees an aging face. For him, an aging face is a physical manifestation of one’s lowly breed. In his obsession with youthful and “superior” looks, the concept of aging is explicitly entangled with class. Quite unlike Sir Walter’s essentialist belief, the era’s advancing scientific and medical knowledge of the human body began to understand aging as a material phenomenon rather than a cosmic fate. The era witnessed a thriving anti-aging skincare industry that promised ways to treat the physical signs of aging, to guard against decay, and even to restore “bloom” to all who may subscribe to its application. This article focuses on one historical anti-aging skincare product and a personal favorite of Sir Walter, Gowland’s Lotion. Reading popular medical texts and beauty regimens alongside Persuasion, this article shows how Austen captures the significance of daily practices of anti-aging skincare routines, exposing the faltering class system in Britain in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Author Biography

June Oh, Michigan State University

is a PhD candidate at Michigan State University where she teaches English and first-year writing. Her research lies at the intersection of age studies, history of medicine and science, gender and sexuality, disability studies, and 18th-century literature. She is currently working on her dissertation Aging Mind and Body in Eighteenth-Century British Literature and Culture. As an interdisciplinary scholar concerned with how the historical past shapes our identity, Oh is dedicated to addressing the meaning-making practices of human culture, past and present. Readers may write to June Oh at ohjune@msu.edu.

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Published

2021-01-01

How to Cite

Oh, J. “Aging Faces and Gowland’s Lotion in Austen’s Persuasion (1817)”. Age, Culture, Humanities: An Interdisciplinary Journal, vol. 5, Jan. 2021, pp. 1-23, doi:10.7146/ageculturehumanities.v5i.130862.