Anger, guilt, and the psychology of the self in Clarissa
By: Victor J. Lams.
Series: American university studies.; v. 191
Publisher: P. Lang; Lang GmbH, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften, Peter
Published: 1999
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 210
Subjects: Richardson, Samuel, 1689-1761.; Psychological fiction, English -- History and criticism.; Epistolary fiction, English -- History and criticism.; Rape victims in literature.; Young women in literature.; Psychology in literature.; Anger in literature.; Guilt in literature.; Self in literature.
Description: "Samuel Richardson's highly acclaimed Clarissa, commonly read as a courtship novel, is in fact a story about the transaction between Robert Lovelace, a pathological narcissist, and Clarissa Harlowe, his victim, whom he idealizes, yet is compelled to destroy. Anger, Guilt, and the Psychology of the Self in Clarissa shows the narcissistic self-structure that explains Lovelace's anger and need for revenge.

It shows, too, the process by which, after being raped, Clarissa reconstructs her self through penitential mourning and deepens her Christian understanding by abandoning her de facto Pelagianism when her own experience of evil provides empirical evidence for Original Sin."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [201]-205) and index.