Aristocratic women and the literary nation, 1832-1867
By: Muireann O'Cinneide.
Series: Palgrave studies in nineteenth-century writing and culture
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; Springer
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 248
ISBN-13: 9780230546707
Subjects: English fiction -- 19th century -- History and criticism; Women and literature -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century; Upper class -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century; Authors and publishers -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century; Literature publishing -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century; Authors and readers -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century; Books and reading -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century; Literature and society -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century
Description: "Aristocratic Women and the Literary Nation, 7832-7867 offers a literary complement to recent historians' emphasis upon the cultural visibility and significance of the British aristocracy during the Victorian period. Aristocratic women benefited from a leisured model of socialised dilettante interaction that allowed them both to maintain and to market their high social status through their writing, but this model could prove a liability in attempts at serious social and/or intellectual engagement. Instead, these women became targets for critiques aimed at defining certain forms of individual and national identity, even as they themselves adapted to changing value schemes. Aristocratic women's writing therefore offers an important literary and cultural trope through which to consider gendered models of influence, elite identities, the nature of politics, private and public spheres, marriage, professional identities, literary hierarchies, imperial experiences, and ultimately the ongoing representation of the nation state between the Reform Bills of 1832 and 1867"--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Part I: Class & authorship; title: Aristocratic lives: life-writing, class & authority; title: Dilettantes and dandies: authorship and the silver fork novel; title: Silly novels and lady novelists: inside the literary marketplace; title: Part II: Writing the nation state; title: Wrongs make rebels: polemical voices; title: The spectacle of fiction; title: Affairs of state: aristocratic women & the politics of influence; title: Conclusion: 1867 and beyond.