num_pages: 212
description: Discusses portrayals of domestic violence in six major works of mid-nineteenth-century literature.The ambiguities and paradoxes of domestic violence were amplified in Victorian culture, which emphasized the home as a woman's place of security. In The Marked Body, Kate Lawson and Lynn Shakinovsky examine the discarded and violated bodies of middle-class women in selected texts of mid-nineteenth-century fiction and poetry. Guided by observations from feminism, psychoanalysis, and trauma theory, they argue that, in these works, domestic violence is a crucible in which the female body is placed, where it becomes marked by scars and disfigurement. Yet, they contend, these wounds go beyond violence to bring these women to a broader state of female subjectivity, sexuality, and consciousness. The female body, already the site of alterity, is inscribed with something that cannot be expressed; it thus becomes that which is culturally and physically denied, the place which is not.“Extremely well researched and well written, this book melds an intelligent reading of imagery and story with a nuanced theoretical framework, a good sense of historical context and social history, and a genuine concern for domestic violence against women in the nineteenth century. I find this book very illuminating.” — Joseph Adamson, coeditor of Scenes of Psychoanalysis, Shame, and Writing“This reading of domestic violence, which is 'behind the scenes' in several senses, is intellectually important, and speaks to a wide variety of issues in Victorian studies, feminism, legal studies, and psychoanalysis.” — Randall Craig, author of Promising Betrothal in Victorian Law and Fiction
language: English
title: The Marked Body: Domestic Violence in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Literature
titlecomplete: The Marked Body: Domestic Violence in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Literature
ratings_count: 5
publisher: State University of New York Press