Fallenness in Victorian women's writing
Subtitle: marry, stitch, die, or do worse
By: Deborah Anna Logan.
Publisher: University of Missouri Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Columbia
Language: eng
Number of pages: 236
Subjects: English literature -- Women authors -- History and criticism.; Women and literature -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century.; English literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism.; Unmarried mothers in literature.; Moral conditions in literature.; Social problems in literature.; Prostitution in literature.; Prostitutes in literature.; Women in literature.
Description: "The Angel-in-the-House is an ideal commonly used to define sexual standards of the Victorian Age. Although widely considered to be the cultural "norm," the Victorian Angel, revered for her morality, domestic virtue, and dedication to the family, is more frequently depicted in the literature of the time as an anomaly. In fact, a primary concern of Victorian literature appears to be the many exceptions to this unattainable ideal, which, according to the period's madonna-or-harlot polarity, casts these exceptions as fallen women. Deborah Anna Logan presents an unusual study of this image of fallenness in Victorian literature, focusing on the links among angelic ideology, sexuality, and, more important, social deviance." "Logan's study is distinguished by its exclusive focus on women writers, including Charlotte Bronte, George Eliot, Elizabeth Gaskell, Harriet Martineau, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Florence Nightingale, Sarah Grand, and Mary Prince. Logan utilizes primary texts from these Victorian writers as well as contemporary critics such as Catherine Gallagher and Elaine Showalter to provide the background on social factors that contributed to the construction of fallen-woman discourse."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.