The economy of character : novels, market culture, and the business of inner meaning / Deidre Shauna Lynch.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lynch, Deidre.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English fiction--18th century--History and criticism.

English fiction.

Characters and characteristics in literature.

English fiction--19th century--History and criticism.

Psychological fiction, English--History and criticism.

Psychological fiction, English.

Literature and society--Great Britain--History.

Literature and society.

Authors and readers--Great Britain--History.

Authors and readers.

Books and reading--Great Britain--History.

Books and reading.

Romanticism--Great Britain.

Romanticism.

History.

Great Britain.

Physical Description:

xiii, 317 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1998.

Summary:

At the start of the eighteenth century, talk of literary "characters" referred much to letters and typefaces as it did to persons in books. Yet by the nineteenth century, characters had become the equals of their readers, friends with whom readers might spend time and empathize.

Although the story of this shift is usually told in terms of the "rise of the individual", Deidre Shauna Lynch proposes an ingenious alternative interpretation. Elaborating a "pragmatics of character", Lynch shows how readers used transactions with characters to accommodate themselves to newly commercialized social relations. Searching for the inner meanings of characters allowed readers both to plumb their own inwardness and to distinguish themselves from others. In a culture of mass consumption, argues Lynch, possessing a belief in the inexpressible interior life of a character rendered one's property truly private.

Ranging from Defoe and Smollett to Burney and Austen, Lynch's account will interest students of the novel, literary historians, and anyone concerned with the inner workings of consumer culture and the history of emotions.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 267-307) and index.

ISBN:

0226498190

0226498204

OCLC:

37608305