The perverse gaze of sympathy
Subtitle: sadomasochistic sentiments from Clarissa to Rescue 911
By: Laura Hinton.
Series: SUNY series in feminist criticism and theory
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: 1999
Place of publication: Albany
Language: eng
Number of pages: 279
Subjects: Flaubert, Gustave, 1821-1880.; Brontë, Emily, 1818-1848.; James, Henry, 1843-1916.; Richardson, Samuel, 1689-1761.; English fiction -- History and criticism.; Sentimentalism in literature.; Television criticism -- United States.; Sadomasochism in literature.; Rape victims in literature.; Feminism and literature.; Sympathy in literature.; Women and literature.; Sadomasochism.
Description: "Suggesting that sentimental novels, films, and TV melodramas are guided by an ambivalent and sadoerotic sympathy, this book shows sympathetic sentiments to be cultural formulations of male desire, and sympathy itself to be the embodiment of a controlling gaze. In a playful but historically persuasive linkage of diverse texts, Laura Hinton shows how sympathetic spectators love their victims and, in the process, maintain authoritarian codes of sexual and racial difference."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 261-272   ) and index.