Mistress of the House
Author | : Tim Dolin |
Publisher | : Routledge |
Total Pages | : 241 |
Release | : 2016-12-05 |
ISBN-10 | : 9781351917209 |
ISBN-13 | : 135191720X |
Rating | : 4/5 (20X Downloads) |
Download or read book Mistress of the House written by Tim Dolin and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-12-05 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This exploration of gender and property ownership in eight important novels argues that property is a decisive undercurrent in narrative structures and modes, as well as an important gender signature in society and culture. Tim Dolin suggests that the formal development of nineteenth-century domestic fiction can only be understood in the context of changes in the theory and laws of property: indeed femininity and its representation cannot be considered separately from property relations and their reform. He presents original readings of novels in which a woman owns, acquires or loses property, focusing on exchanges between patriarchal cultural authority, the 'woman question' and narrative form, and on the place of domestic fiction in a culture in which property relations and gender relations are subject to radical review. Each chapter revolves around a representative text, but refers substantially to other material, both other novels and contemporary social, legal, political and feminist commentary.