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The English Jacobin novel on rights, property and the law : critiquing the contract / Nancy E. Johnson.
Van Pelt Library PR858.L39 J64 2004
Available
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Johnson, Nancy E., 1956-
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- English fiction--18th century--History and criticism.
- English fiction.
- Law and literature--History--18th century.
- Law and literature.
- Literature and society--Great Britain--History--18th century.
- Literature and society.
- Jacobins.
- History.
- Great Britain.
- English fiction--French influences.
- Social contract in literature.
- Human rights in literature.
- Jacobins--Great Britain.
- Property in literature.
- Law in literature.
- Physical Description:
- viii, 215 pages ; 23 cm
- Place of Publication:
- Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.
- Summary:
- The English Jacobin Novel on Rights, Property and the Law is a study of the radical novel's critique of the evolving social contract in the 1790s. Focusing on selected novels by Thomas Holcroft, Charlotte Smith, Elizabeth Inchbald, Robert Bage, William Godwin, Mary Hays, Mary Wollstone-craft and Maria Edgeworth, this book examines narrative investigations into the intricate relationships between theories of rights, the requirements of proprietorship in civil society, and the construction of the legal subject. The novel's inquiries into political transformations at the end of the eighteenth century reveal that the exclusion of certain segments of the population from political participation - based on financial dependence - persisted into notions of the social contract. English Jacobin fiction tells the tale of how the novel, in one critical moment of history, located and gave meaning to a theory of rights that became a foundation of modern democracy.
- Contents:
- Chapter 1 Narrativizing a Critique of the Contract 12
- Chapter 2 Debating Rights, Property, and the Law 25
- Chapter 3 Envisaging the New Citizen 56
- Anna St Ives / Thomas Holcroft 60
- Desmond / Charlotte Smith 71
- Nature and Art / Elizabeth Inchbald 83
- Hermsprong; or, Man As He is Not / Robert Bage 93
- Chapter 4 Acquiring Political Agency 104
- Things As They Are; or, The Adventures of Caleb Williams / William Godwin 110
- Memoirs of Emma Courtney / Mary Hays 129
- The Wrongs of Woman: or, Maria / Mary Wollstonecraft 140
- Chapter 5 Bestowing the Mantle 153
- The Young Philosopher / Charlotte Smith 155
- Castle Rackrent / Maria Edgeworth 169.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 202-210) and index.
- ISBN:
- 1403935734
- OCLC:
- 53796855
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