Representing women and female desire from Arcadia to Jane Eyre / Marea Mitchell and Dianne Osland.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mitchell, Marea, 1959-

Contributor:

Osland, Dianne, 1950-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Austen, Jane, 1775-1817.

English literature--History and criticism.

English literature.

Women in literature.

Austen, Jane, 1775-1817--Characters--Women.

Austen, Jane.

Sidney, Philip, 1554-1586. Arcadia.

Sidney, Philip.

Women and literature--Great Britain.

Women and literature.

Desire in literature.

Great Britain.

Physical Description:

viii, 247 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Basingstoke [England] ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

Summary:

How far should a woman go as the agent of her own desires? The received wisdom is that she should not go very far at all - certainly not as far as Lady Mary Wroth's Brittany widow, whose suitor scorned all who 'came not half way at the least to meete his love'. We are all familiar with the chastely passive feminine ideal and its counterpart, the demonized sexual aggressor, but the texts with which we deal here reveal a much more sophisticated awareness of the lengths to which a woman might legitimately go in pursuit of her own desires, and this study focuses on the representation of female desire not simply as a predatory instinct but as an inevitable complication of the interest in female subjectivity and agency in the early modern period. From Gynecia's 'working' mind and 'vehement spirits' in Sidney's Arcadia to Jane Eyre's 'fierce speaking' and 'volcanic vehemence', these fictional heroines demonstrate complex understandings of the risky business of female agency. Under changing social circumstances and cultural practices, they negotiate and renegotiate the terms upon which they can pursue destinies of their own making.

Contents:

1 Women of Great Wit: Designing Women in Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia 25

2 'Free Gift Was What He Wished': Negotiating Desire in Lady Mary Wroth's Urania 52

3 Stratagems and Seeming Constraints, or, How to Avoid Being a 'Grey-hounds Collar' 75

4 'A Scheme of Virtuous Politics': Governing the Self in 'Assaulted and Pursued Chastity' (1656), The History of the Nun (1689), Love Intrigues (1713), and Love in Excess (1720) 96

5 Poor in Everything But Will: Richardson's Pamela 117

6 Turret Love and Cottage Hate: Coming Down to Earth in Pamela 2 and The Female Quixote 141

7 'It Was Happy She Took a Good Course': Saving Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice 158

8 Agitating Risk and Romantic Chance: Going All the Way with Jane Eyre? 175.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 232-242) and index.

ISBN:

1403943311

OCLC:

59011611

Publisher Number:

9781403943316