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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Page 34
But there are few signs , on the face of it , of Shirley ' s tense stand - offs between
haves and have - nots , and few signs that the ladies of Cranford have much
property to speak of . That they should call up an image of the mythical female ...
But there are few signs , on the face of it , of Shirley ' s tense stand - offs between
haves and have - nots , and few signs that the ladies of Cranford have much
property to speak of . That they should call up an image of the mythical female ...
Page 39
Ladies ' magazines formalized the female miscellany and instated textually the
ephemerality of the woman ' s collection . Its contingency in relation to taste and
fashion ; its rhetoric of the snippet and the pressed flower ; indeed its very mode
of ...
Ladies ' magazines formalized the female miscellany and instated textually the
ephemerality of the woman ' s collection . Its contingency in relation to taste and
fashion ; its rhetoric of the snippet and the pressed flower ; indeed its very mode
of ...
Page 40
There were opportunities for the woman ' s collection to be displayed outside the
private spaces of the home , however . Indeed , middle - class women took their
material culture right into the marketplace in the institution of the ladies ' charity ...
There were opportunities for the woman ' s collection to be displayed outside the
private spaces of the home , however . Indeed , middle - class women took their
material culture right into the marketplace in the institution of the ladies ' charity ...
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Common terms and phrases
action argues authority becomes belongs Brontė called Caroline chapter character claim collection common concern conventional Cranford critical Crossways culture desire Diana difference domestic effect England English equality expressed fact female feminine fiction figure finally Gaskell gender give hand Hardy Hardy's heroine household husband idea imagination important independent individual influence Jane kind ladies land landscape language live London Lucy marriage married Mary material means Meredith Miss Moonstone moral narrative narrator nature never notes novel passion plot political possession present protected provincial question readers reform relations relationship representation represents resistance rhetoric romance seems sensation sense separate sexual Shirley single social society space story suggests things tion turns University Victorian Villette voice wife woman women writing York
Bibliographic information
| Title | Mistress of the House: Women of Property in the Victorian Novel Nineteenth century |
| Authors | Department of English Tim Dolin, Tim Dolin |
| Contributor | Joanne Shattock |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | Ashgate, 1997 |
| Original from | the University of Michigan |
| Digitized | 4 Mar 2008 |
| ISBN | 1859281842, 9781859281840 |
| Length | 153 pages |
| Subjects | › › Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh Literary Criticism / Women Authors |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |