Avuncularism : capitalism, patriarchy, and nineteenth-century English culture / Eileen Cleere.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cleere, Eileen.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

English fiction.

Capitalism and literature--Great Britain--History--19th century.

Literature and society--Great Britain--History--19th century.

Literature and society.

Pawnbrokers.

Moneylenders.

Capitalism and literature.

History.

Great Britain.

Moneylenders--Great Britain.

Pawnbrokers--Great Britain.

Social classes in literature.

Father figures in literature.

Patriarchy in literature.

Uncles in literature.

Great Britain--Civilization--19th century.

Civilization.

Physical Description:

viii, 238 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Stanford, Calif. : Stanford University Press, 2004.

Summary:

"Avuncularism" argues that the famously " nuclear" family of nineteenth-century literature and culture was, in fact, far more fractured and contradictory than twentieth-century critics have assumed. Instead, Cleere isolates an alternative paradigm of the " avunculate, " suggesting that an interest in Uncles rather than Fathers marks a preoccupation with the increasingly theorized and embattled directives of a new political economy.

Contents:

Introduction: Life Without Father

Uncles in History, Theory, and Literature 1

1. Home Trading: Mansfield Park and the Economics of Endogamy 33

2. Reproduction and Malthusian Economics: Fat, Fertility, and Family Planning in Adam Bede 76

3. In Loco Parentis: Dickensian Uncles and the Victorian Pawnshop 109

4. Turning Bones into Spoons: Jews, Pawnbrokers, and Daniel Deronda 144

5. "Send the Letters, Uncle John": Trollope, Penny-Postage Reform, and the Domestication of Empire 171

Conclusion: Home Trading Redux: Universal Brotherhood and the Redemption of Uncle 205.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [215]-232) and index.

ISBN:

0804750254

OCLC:

53469681