Title: An uncomfortable authority : Maria Edgeworth and her contexts /
Authors: Kaufman, Heidi, 1969-; Fauske, Christopher J., 1963-
Publisher: University of Delaware Press,
Year: 2004
Subjects: Edgeworth, Maria, Criticism and interpretation.; Edgeworth, Maria, Criticism and interpretation.; Women and literature Ireland History; Ireland In literature.
Abstract: "In recent years, Maria Edgeworth (1768-1849) has been the subject of increasing interest. This collection of essays builds on scholarship that has helped canonize Edgeworth's writing. It also raises new questions about her place in English and Irish history, literary history, and women's history. In many ways, Edgeworth's entire adult life was an attempt to reconcile the irreconcilable, an attempt to justify and preserve her own privileged position even as she acknowledged the tenuousness of that position and as she sought to claim other privileges denied her. Edgeworth's writing challenges readers to understand her historical contexts as much as it obliged her to confront the politics of her literary authority."--Jacket.
Contents: Introduction / Chris Fauske, Heidi Kaufman -- Edgeworth, the united Irishmen, and "more intelligent treason" / Marilyn Butler -- History and utopia in Ormond / Peter Cosgrove -- The keener's cry in castle Rackrent : the death of Irish culture? / Frances R. Botkin -- "Le vrai n'est pas toujours vraisemblable" : the evaluation of realism in Edgeworth's Irish tales / Jacqueline Belanger -- "Distorted nature in a fever" : Irish bulls, Irish novels, the 1798 rebellion, and their gothic contexts / Darryl Jones -- National character and foreclosed Irishness : a reconsideration of Ennui / Kathleen Costello-Sullivan -- "The fashion not to be an absentee" : fashion and moral authority in Edgeworth's tales / Heide Thomson -- "Games of chance" : Belinda, education, and empire / Jessica Richard -- Control experiment : Edgeworth's critique of Rousseau's educational theory / Catherine Toal -- Harrington and anti-Semitism : Mendelssohn's invisible agency / Susan Manly -- A whillaluh for Ireland : Castle Rackrent and Edgeworth's influence on Sir Walter Scott / Kit Kincade.