Families of the Heart : Surrogate Relations in the Eighteenth-Century British Novel / Ann Campbell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Campbell, Ann, 1972- author.

Series:

Transits (Bucknell University)

Transits

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

English fiction.

Families in literature.

Feminist theory.

Group identity in literature.

Social groups in literature.

Women in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (177 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Lewisburg, PA : Bucknell University Press, [2023]

Summary:

In this innovative analysis of canonical British novels, Campbell identifies a new literary device—the surrogate family—as a signal of cultural anxieties about young women’s changing relationship to matrimony across the long eighteenth century. By assembling chosen families rather than families of origin, Campbell convincingly argues, female protagonists in these works compensate for weak family ties, explore the world and themselves, prepare for idealized marriages, or sidestep marriage altogether. Tracing the evolution of this rich convention from the female characters in Defoe’s and Richardson’s fiction who are allowed some autonomy in choosing spouses, to the more explicitly feminist work of Haywood and Burney, in which connections between protagonists and their surrogate sisters and mothers can substitute for marriage itself, this book makes an ambitious intervention by upending a traditional trope—the model of the hierarchal family—ultimately offering a new lens through which to regard these familiar works.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

1 JUST BUSINESS Surrogate Families as Entrepreneurial Ventures in Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders and Roxana

2 BUILDING A FOUNDATION FOR THE FAMILY OF THE HEART Prototypes of Surrogate Families in Samuel Richardson’s Pamela and Pamela in Her Exalted Condition

3 PERFECTING THE FAMILY OF THE HEART Relationship Remembered in Samuel Richardson’s Clarissa and Sir Charles Grandison

4 AN AFFINITY FOR LEARNING Eliza Haywood’s The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless and The History of Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy

5 ADOPTING TO CHANGE Choosing Family in Frances Burney’s Evelina and Cecilia

CONCLUSION

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Print version: Campbell, Ann Families of the Heart

ISBN:

1-68448-427-8

OCLC:

1345585957