Social reform in Gothic writing : fantastic forms of change, 1764-1834 / Ellen Malenas Ledoux.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ledoux, Ellen Malenas, 1975-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

English literature.

American literature--19th century--History and criticism.

American literature.

Jamaican literature--19th century--History and criticism.

Jamaican literature.

Gothic revival (Literature)--English-speaking countries.

Gothic revival (Literature).

Literature and society.

History.

English-speaking countries.

Social problems in literature.

Literature and society--Commonwealth countries--History--19th century.

Literature and society--United States--History--19th century.

United States.

Commonwealth countries.

Physical Description:

x, 238 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

Summary:

"Breaking with traditional analyses of Gothic literature that limit its influence to a reactive critique of current events, Social Reform in Gothic Writing argues for a new political reading of Gothic writing from England, America, and colonial Jamaica - one that recognizes the transformative power of this popular literature. Social Reform in Gothic Writing provides a transatlantic view of Gothic literature's intervention into the public discourse surrounding seminal issues of the Revolutionary era such as women's property rights, population pressure, public health, and abolition. Informed by genre and reader-response theories, the unique contribution of Social Reform is its insistence that Gothic fantasy can have real-world political impact through documenting ideological shifts wrought by author/audience interaction and identifying the social policies that Gothic texts helped to shape. Authors examined include Horace Walpole, Charlotte Smith, Ann Radcliffe and William Godwin"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note:

1. Introduction: Fantastic Forms of Change

2. Emergent Forms: Horace Walpole, Politics, and the Eighteenth-Century Reader

3. A Castle of One's Own: The Architecture of Emerging Feminism

4. Transmuting the Baser Metals: The Post-Revolutionary Audience, Political Economy, and Gothic Forms in Godwin's St. Leon: A Tale of the Sixteenth Century

5. 'Schemes of Reformation': Institutionalized Healthcare in Charles Brockden Brown's Arthur Mervyn

6. Re-forming Genres: Negotiating Slavery in the Works of Matthew Lewis

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781137302670

1137302674

OCLC:

827256537

Online:

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