Samuel Richardson, dress, and discourse
By: Kathleen M. Oliver.
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: 2008
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 229
Subjects: Richardson, Samuel, -- 1689-1761 -- Criticism and interpretation; Epistolary fiction, English -- History and criticism
Description: "While dress is but one way of entering into a text, and a small point of entry at that, analysis of dress in Richardson's novels provides us with insights into the nature of novel writing in eighteenth-century England; into the nature of Richardson's novelistic project of constructing a legible domestic feminine body whose signification remains stable; and into the paradox that Richardson's ideal, sensible (as possessed of sensibility) female body is ultimately coded as male. It also calls into question the whole construct of the "domestic woman" and what this construct means in terms of bourgeois ideology: Is the ideal domestic woman merely a man in drag?"--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.