Mistress of the House: Women of Property in the Victorian NovelThis exploration of gender and property ownership in eight important novels argues that property is a decisive undercurrent in narrative structures and modes, as well as an important gender signature in society and culture. Tim Dolin suggests that the formal development of nineteenth-century domestic fiction can only be understood in the context of changes in the theory and laws of property: indeed femininity and its representation cannot be considered separately from property relations and their reform. He presents original readings of novels in which a woman owns, acquires or loses property, focusing on exchanges between patriarchal cultural authority, the 'woman question' and narrative form, and on the place of domestic fiction in a culture in which property relations and gender relations are subject to radical review. Each chapter revolves around a representative text, but refers substantially to other material, both other novels and contemporary social, legal, political and feminist commentary. |
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... relations in literature . 6. Economics in literature . 7 . Property in literature . 8. Sex roles in literature . 9. Marriage in literature . 10 . Women in literature . I. Title . II . Series : Nineteenth Century ( Aldershot , England ) ...
... relations in literature . 6. Economics in literature . 7 . Property in literature . 8. Sex roles in literature . 9. Marriage in literature . 10 . Women in literature . I. Title . II . Series : Nineteenth Century ( Aldershot , England ) ...
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... relation to property' (Poovey, 1988, p.84) is reproduced in fictions which feature the woman of property. In law, women of property included unmarried women and spinsters (the single woman who 'has the same rights to property ... as a ...
... relation to property' (Poovey, 1988, p.84) is reproduced in fictions which feature the woman of property. In law, women of property included unmarried women and spinsters (the single woman who 'has the same rights to property ... as a ...
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... relations of husband and wife were founded upon a condition of things which had existed without exception in all parts of the earth — the husband being the protector and support of the wife and the latter subordinate to and reliant upon ...
... relations of husband and wife were founded upon a condition of things which had existed without exception in all parts of the earth — the husband being the protector and support of the wife and the latter subordinate to and reliant upon ...
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... relations, claiming women as non-subjects: 'In nineteenth-century Britain, the fundamental criterion of subject status — the individual's capacity to recognize and act on his own interests — was underwritten by another capacity — the ...
... relations, claiming women as non-subjects: 'In nineteenth-century Britain, the fundamental criterion of subject status — the individual's capacity to recognize and act on his own interests — was underwritten by another capacity — the ...
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... relations and complex commodity exchanges' (1993, p.12). For this reason, and for reasons I explain below, I have ... relation to the domestic space. Like other Victorian heroines, the fictional feme sole is wide open to the forces of ...
... relations and complex commodity exchanges' (1993, p.12). For this reason, and for reasons I explain below, I have ... relation to the domestic space. Like other Victorian heroines, the fictional feme sole is wide open to the forces of ...
Contents
Shirley | |
Cranford and its belongings | |
Villette | |
The Moonstone | |
Hardys uncovered women | |
Diana of the Crossways | |
A brief summary of the laws | |
The Caroline Norton affair | |
Index | |
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Common terms and phrases
argues Barbara Bodichon becomes Betteredge Bretton Brontë Caroline Celt chapter character Charlotte Brontë Collins comedy comic conflict conventional coverture Cranford Cranfordians critical Crossways culture debates Diana divorce domestic earnings England English female feminine feminist figure Gaskell Gaskell's gender Gillian Beer Hardy Hardy's Helsinger Helstone heroine heroine's Hintock household husband ideology imagination independent Irish Jane Eyre Jude Jude the Obscure Jude's ladies landed landscape language live London Lucy Lucy's marriage married women's property Mary Meredith middle-class mistress Moonstone moral narrative narrator nature passion plot political possession property laws property reform provincial question Rachel readers realism Redworth relations relationship representation represents resistance rhetoric romance scene sensation novel sensationalism sexual Shirley Shirley's social social realism society space sphere story struggle suggests things Verinder Victorian fiction Victorian novel Villette voice Wessex widow wife wives woman of property women Woodlanders writing