Imagining inclusive society in nineteenth-century novels
Subtitle: the code of sincerity in the public sphere
By: Pam Morris.
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press; The Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Baltimore
Language: eng
Number of pages: 261
Subjects: English fiction -- 19th century -- History and criticism.; Social classes in literature.; Literature and society -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century.; Mass media -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century.; Social values in literature.; Sincerity in literature.; Great Britain -- Social conditions -- 19th century.
Description: "Using nineteenth-century novels and other Victorian literature, Pam Morris traces a dramatic transformation of British public consciousness that occurred during the brief period between the Reform Acts of 1832 and 1867. Naturalized acceptance of social hierarchy gave way to general imagining of a modern mass culture. Central to this collective revisioning of social relationships was the pressure to restyle political leadership in terms of popular legitimacy, to develop a more inclusive mode of discourse within an increasingly heterogeneous public sphere, and to find new ways of inscribing social distinctions and exclusions."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [243]-251) and index.