Title Gothic feminism : the professionalization of gender from Charlotte Smith to the Brontës / Diane Long Hoeveler

Published University Park, Pa. : Pennsylvania State University Press, ©1998

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Description 1 online resource (xix, 250 pages) Contents Introduction: Gothic feminism and the professionalization of "femininity" -- Gendering the civilizing process: the case of Charlotte Smith's Emmiline, the orphan of the castle -- Gendering victimization: Radcliffe's early Gothics -- Gendering vindication: Radcliffe's major gothics -- Hyperbolic femininity: Jane Austen, "Rosa Matilda" and Mary Shelley -- The triumph of the civilizing process: the Brontës and romantic feminism Summary As British women writers in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries sought to define how they experienced their era's social and economic upheaval, they helped popularize a new style of bourgeois female sensibility. Building on her earlier work in Romantic Androgyny, Diane Long Hoeveler now examines the Gothic novels of Charlotte Smith, Ann Radcliffe, Jane Austen, Charlotte Dacre Byrne, Mary Shelley, and the Bront?s to show how these writers helped define femininity for women of the British middle class. Hoeveler argues that a female-created literary ideology, now known as "victim feminism," arose as the Gothic novel helped create a new social role of professional victim for women adjusting to the new bourgeois order. These novels were thinly disguised efforts at propagandizing a new form of conduct for women, teaching that "professional femininity"--A cultivated pose of wise passiveness and controlled emotions-best prepared them for social survival. She examines how representations of both men and women in these novels moved from the purely psychosexual into social and political representations, and how these writers constructed a series of ideologies that would allow their female characters-and readers-fictitious mastery over an oppressive social and political system. Gothic Feminism takes a neo-feminist approach to these women's writings, treating them not as sacred texts but as thesis-driven works that attempted to instruct women in a series of strategic poses. It offers both a new understanding of the genre and a wholly new interpretation of feminism as a literary ideology Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes English Print version record SUBJECT Radcliffe, Ann, (1764-1823) ram Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, (1797-1851) ram Subject Horror tales, English -- History and criticism Feminism and literature -- Great Britain -- History -- 18th century Feminism and literature -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century Women and literature -- Great Britain -- History -- 18th century Women and literature -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century English fiction -- Women authors -- History and criticism Feminist fiction, English -- History and criticism Gothic revival (Literature) -- Great Britain Gender identity in literature. Femininity in literature. Sex role in literature. English fiction -- History and criticism Gothic fiction (Literary genre) -- Great Britain English literature -- Women authors -- History and criticism LITERARY CRITICISM -- European -- English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh. Gothic fiction (Literary genre) English literature -- Women authors English fiction English fiction -- Women authors Women and literature Sex role in literature Horror tales, English Gothic revival (Literature) Gender identity in literature Feminist fiction, English Feminism and literature Femininity in literature Schriftstellerin Gothic novel Geschlechterrolle Motiv Literatur Feminismus Letterkunde. Engels. Griezelverhalen. Feminisme. Vrouwelijke auteurs. Gothic Revival (letterkunde) Skräck. Litteraturvetenskap. Storbritannien. 1700-talet. 1800-talet. Könsidentitet. Kvinnlighet. Könsroller. Författare. Littérature d'épouvante anglaise -- Histoire et critique. Féminisme et littérature -- Grande-Bretagne -- Histoire. Roman gothique -- Grande-Bretagne. Roman anglais -- Femmes écrivains -- Histoire et critique. Identité sexuelle -- Dans la littérature. Rôle selon le sexe -- Dans la littérature. Féminité (psychologie) dans la littérature. Féminisme -- Dans la littérature. Femmes et littérature -- Angleterre (GB) -- 19e siècle. Skräckromaner -- Storbritannien -- 1700-talet -- 1800-talet. Skräckromantik -- Litteraturhistoria -- England. Feminism. Kvinnliga författare -- Storbritannien -- 1700-talet -- 1800-talet. Könsroller i litteraturen. Great Britain Großbritannien Englisch. Genre/Form History Criticism, interpretation, etc. Form Electronic book ISBN 9780217072441 0217072445 9780271072449 027107244X

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