"This study discusses the work of authors in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and argues that members of mainstream society grew to accept and even enjoy the non-normative sexuality of the Aesthetic Movement chiefly through works of parody and self-parody. Highlighting Victorian popular culture, Aestheticism and Sexual Parody adds a new and important dimension to the theorizations of parody as a combative strategy by which sexually marginalized groups undermine the status quo. From W. S. Gilbert's drama and Vernon Lee's and Christopher Isherwood's prose to George Du Maurier's cartoons and Max Beerbohm's caricatures, Dennis Denisoff explores the parodies' interactions with the personae and texts of canonical authors such as Alfred Tennyson, Walter Pater, Algernon Swinburne, and Oscar Wilde. In doing so, he considers the impact that these interactions had on modern ideas of gender, sexuality, taste, and politics."--BOOK JACKET.