ABSTRACT

This article explores a hitherto neglected context of Robert Browning’s “Gold Hair” (1864), analysing the poem in relation to the tradition of “hair harvests” in Brittany, France, as well as the broader contexts of the hair trade and hairwork in the nineteenth century. In doing so, it makes a case for reading the textual evocation of hair in the poem literally to trace a cultural shift towards hair framed in material rather than corporeal terms. The girl of the poem has abundant golden hair that corresponds with gold, hairwork, and the hair trade in ways that highlight its potential against the girl’s apparent rejection of common hair practices. Diverging from previous analyses that have read poetic representations of hair in Browning primarily as symbolic (especially in relation to sexuality), the pairing of hair with gold is shown in this poem to signify unrealised sources of credit, unprocessed matter, holding the potential to be exchanged or refined. This article considers practices of keeping, working, and selling hair in conjunction with the Brownings’ collection of hair and hairwork held by the Armstrong Browning Library, in this way elucidating the materiality of hair in both the poem and the Victorian imaginary.

摘要

本文探讨了罗伯特·布朗宁的“金色头发”（1864 年）迄今为止被忽视的背景，分析了这首诗与法国布列塔尼“头发收获”传统的关系，以及更广泛的头发贸易和发型背景。十九世纪。在这样做的过程中，它提供了一个案例，可以从字面上阅读诗歌中对头发的文本唤起，以追溯文化转向以物质而非物质术语为框架的头发。这首诗中的女孩有一头金色的头发，与黄金、发型和头发交易相对应，突出了它的潜力，以对抗女孩明显拒绝常见的发型做法。与之前的分析不同，这些分析主要将布朗宁的头发诗意表现解读为象征性的（尤其是与性有关的），在这首诗中，头发与黄金的配对表示未实现的信用来源，未加工的物质，具有被交换或精炼的潜力。本文结合阿姆斯特朗布朗宁图书馆收藏的布朗宁夫妇的头发和发型收藏，考虑保留、加工和销售头发的做法，从而阐明了头发在诗歌和维多利亚时代想象中的重要性。