The Seduction Narrative in Britain, 1747–1800 - Softcover

Binhammer, Katherine

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1107411505 ISBN 13: 9781107411500

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2012

Synopsis

Eighteenth-century literature displays a fascination with the seduction of a virtuous young heroine, most famously illustrated by Samuel Richardson's Clarissa and repeated in 1790s radical women's novels, in the many memoirs by fictional or real penitent prostitutes, and in street print. Across fiction, ballads, essays and miscellanies, stories were told of women's mistaken belief in their lovers' vows. In this book Katherine Binhammer surveys seduction narratives from the late eighteenth century within the context of the new ideal of marriage-for-love and shows how these tales tell varying stories of women's emotional and sexual lives. Drawing on new historicism, feminism, and narrative theory, Binhammer argues that the seduction narrative allowed writers to explore different fates for the heroine than the domesticity that became the dominant form in later literature. This study will appeal to scholars of eighteenth-century literature, social and cultural history, and women's and gender studies.

About this title

Book Description:

The seduction of a virtuous young heroine was an immensely popular plot in eighteenth-century literature, most famously in Samuel Richardson's Clarissa. This book surveys seduction narratives within the context of the new ideal of marriage-for-love and shows how these tales tell varying stories of women's emotional and sexual lives.

Review:

"Nevertheless, Binhammer's book has implications that reach across the lines of gender and lay the groundwork for future studies, not only of the changing perceptions of women's selfhood in the nineteenth century but also of parallel developments in male selfhood and emergent notions of the modern individual."
-Rachel Carnell,Cleveland State University

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1107411505
• ISBN 13: 9781107411500
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256