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Nancy Armstrong argues that the history of the novel and the history of the modern individual are, quite literally, one and the same. She suggests that certain works of fiction created a subject, one displaying wit, will, or energy capable of shifting the social order to grant the exceptional person a place commensurate with his or her individual worth. Once the novel had created this figure, readers understood themselves in terms of a narrative that produced a self-governing subject. In the decades following the revolutions in British North America and France, the major novelists distinguished themselves as authors by questioning the fantasy of a self-made individual. To show how novels by ...
In this study of British realism, Armstrong explains how fiction entered into a relationship with the new popular art of Victorian photography that transformed the world into a picture.
A new edition of this standard work, fully updated with four brand new chapters.
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Desire and Domestic Fiction argues that far from being removed from historical events, novels by writers from Richardson to Woolf were themselves agents of the rise of the middle class. Drawing on texts that range from 18th-century female conduct books and contract theory to modern psychoanalytic case histories and theories of reading, Armstrong shows that the emergence of a particular form of female subjectivity capable of reigning over the household paved the way for the establishment of institutions which today are accepted centers of political power. Neither passive subjects nor embattled rebels, the middle-class women who were authors and subjects of the major tradition of British ficti...
First published in 1989, this collection of essays brings into focus the history of a specific form of violence – that of representation. The contributors identify representations of self and other that empower a particular class, gender, nation, or race, constructing a history of the west as the history of changing modes of subjugation. The essays bring together a wide range of literary and historical work to show how writing became an increasingly important mode of domination during the modern period as ruling ideas became a form of violence in their own right. This reissue will be of particular value to literature students with an interest in the concept of violence, and the boundaries and capacity of discourse.
This book develops a new theoretical account of the historical role of the novel in fashioning our bodies and environments.
The Novel: An Anthology of Criticism and Theory 1900–2000 is a collection of the most influential writings on the theory of the novel from the twentieth century. Traces the rise of novel theory and the extension of its influence into other disciplines, especially social, cultural and political theory. Broad in scope, including sections on formalism; the Chicago School; structuralism and narratology; deconstruction; psychoanalysis; Marxism; social discourse; gender; post-colonialism; and more. Includes whole essays or chapters wherever possible. Headnotes introduce and link each piece, enabling readers to draw connections between different schools of thought. Encourages students to approach theoretical texts with confidence, applying the same skills they bring to literary texts. Includes a volume introduction, a selected bibliography, an index of topics and short author biographies to support study.
Finally, a field guide to interpreting more than 100 international gestures, from the wave to the finger, from the shrug to the nod. Here’s easy access to the essential information about common (and some not-so-common) gestures you may encounter at home or abroad. Field Guide to Gestures is organized into handy sections for quick reference when time is of the essence and interpretation is everything. If a man bends his torso forward when meeting you, turn to the “Arrival/Departure” chapter to learn more about the bowing gesture. When the woman at the end of the bar flips her hair and looks your way, turn to the “Mating” chapter to learn just what she’s trying to say. And if your friend has intertwined his index finger and middle fingers as the night’s lottery numbers are being read, go to “No Words Needed” to learn more about the crossed fingers gesture. This practical guide includes more than 100 full-color photographs of the world’s most common gestures, plus cross-referenced descriptions throughout, including historical background and common usage. Helpful step-by-step directions and detailed line drawings teach you how to perform each gesture correctly.
In The Ideology of Conduct, first published in 1987, scholars from various fields, from the medieval period to the present day, discuss literature in which the sole purpose is to instruct women in how to make themselves desirable. This collection investigates how middle-class writers who had long emulated the behaviour of the aristocracy began to criticise that behaviour by formulating an alternative object of desire. They did so without appearing to breed political controversy because it seemed to concern only the female. But writing for and about women in fact became a powerful instrument of hegemony as it introduced a whole new vocabulary for social relations, induced certain forms of economic behaviour as desirable in men and women respectively, and insured the reproduction of the nuclear family. It is argued, therefore, that the literature of conduct not only recorded but also assisted the production of our contemporary gender-based culture.