Adventures in domesticity
Subtitle: gender and colonial adulteration in eighteenth-century British literature
By: by Sharon Harrow.
Series: [AMS studies in the eighteenth century ;; no. 45]
Publisher: AMS Press
Published: 2004
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 265
Subjects: English fiction -- 18th century -- History and criticism; Domestic fiction, English -- History and criticism; English prose literature -- 18th century -- History and criticism; Women and literature -- Great Britain -- History -- 18th century; Travelers' writings, English -- History and criticism; Pluralism (Social sciences) in literature; Difference (Psychology) in literature; Imperialism in literature; Colonies in literature; Race in literature
Description: "In the eighteenth century, wealth from colonial exploitation swelled the British homeland. This embarrassment of riches spelled contamination for many, a threat to the very meaning of Englishness. Harrow argues that literature responded to concerns over legitimacy, adulteration, and national identity by turning to domestic narratives. By reading the domestic home space in close relation to the domestic nation, Harrow politicizes the domestic and complicates our understanding of the relation between domesticity and cultural difference. She also explores the way the shifting meaning of domesticity paralleled generic and narrative ambiguities. Harrow reads canonical fiction (novels by Defoe, Austen, and Shelley) in a colonial context and analyzes women's travel writing in the context of abolitionist poetry, natural history, and political pamphlets."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [227]-260) and index.