British fiction and the production of social order, 1740-1830
By: Miranda J. Burgess.
Series: Cambridge studies in Romanticism ;; 43
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2000
Place of publication: Cambridge; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 307
Subjects: English fiction -- 18th century -- History and criticism.; Literature and society -- Great Britain -- History -- 18th century.; Literature and society -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century.; English fiction -- 19th century -- History and criticism.; Politics and literature -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century.; Politics and literature -- Great Britain -- History -- 18th century.; Books and reading -- Great Britain -- History.; Romanticism -- Great Britain.; Social ethics in literature.
Description: "In British Fiction and the Production of Social Order, Miranda J. Burgess examines what Romantic-period writers called "romance"; a hybrid genre defined by its role in the negotiation of conflicts between political economy and moral philosophy. Reading a broad range of fictional and nonfictional works published between 1740 and 1830, Burgess places actors such as Richardson, Scott, Austen, and Wollstonecraft in a new economic, social, and cultural context. She explores the interaction between writing and the formation of community, particularly in relation to issues of legitimacy and gender. Burgess argues that the romance held a key role in remaking the national order of a Britain dependent on ideologies of human nature for justification of its social, economic, and political systems."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 277-295) and index.