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This book analyzes the ways in which female virtue was tied to a new concept of authenticity in 18th-century sentimental fiction, producing a redefinition of gender relations on the one hand & a re-examination of the value & place of fictional narrative on the other. As the old values on the ...

This book analyzes the ways in which female virtue was tied to a new concept of authenticity in 18th-century sentimental fiction, producing a redefinition of gender relations on the one hand & a re-examination of the value & place of fictional narrative on the other. As the old values on the aristocracy were being overturned & it was no longer possible simply to equate personal worth with rank or title, a new narrative protagonist was born - someone who was authentic, virtuous, & usually female. New questions arose at the same time: What kind of language could represent this authentic self? How far should the virtuous subject be tested, & what is the role of the reader in the process? With in-depth analysis of four important 18th-century epistolary novels - Pamela, Clarissa, La Nouvelle Heloise, & Les Liaisons Dangereuses - the author shows that the female protagonist in these works is forced to protect her body & her writing from violation. She argues that a disturbing equation emerges between revealing the female body & revealing a female sensibility &, therefore, between pleasure - both narrative & visual - & virtue. Concluding with Les Liaisons Dangereuses & the end of the sentimental narrative tradition, the author questions even the possibility of sustaining authentic language. In these four texts, she says, writing becomes an ideological as well as literary tool for the establishment of new cultural values.

"Builds expertly and significantly on several earlier feminist analyses of Chaucer's works.... An important addition to the growing body of work devoted to Chaucer and gender.... One of the real strengths of this work is the way in which it ties medieval notions of gender both to ancient ...

"Builds expertly and significantly on several earlier feminist analyses of Chaucer's works.... An important addition to the growing body of work devoted to Chaucer and gender.... One of the real strengths of this work is the way in which it ties medieval notions of gender both to ancient, Aristotelian views and to modem and postmodern feminist theories". -- Laura Howes, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

"A seminal critical text in Chaucer and medieval studies.... Thoroughly enjoyable". Liam Purdon, Doane College, Crete, Nebraska

Catherine S. Cox considers the significance of gender in relation to language and poetics in Chaucer's writing. Examining selections from The Canterbury Tales, Troilus and Criseyde, The Legend of Good Women, and the ballades, she explores Chaucer's concern with gender and language both within the context of fourteenth-century culture and in light of contemporary feminist and post-structuralist theory.

Cox argues that Chaucer's attention to gender and language exposes the contradictory notions of woman in medieval culture. Further, resisting the imposition of modern, reductive theoretical concerns on medieval authors, Cox makes a compelling case for a Chaucer who both confirms and challenges the orthodoxy of his day, thereby countering recent arguments that insist upon a wholly feminist or wholly patriarchal Chaucer.

Informed by a broad range of traditional literary and historical scholarship (including Aristotelian philosophy, medieval Latin culture, and the writings of the Church fathers) as well as by recent psychoanalytical debates related to post- modern feminist critical theory (including those of Luce Irigaray, Julia Kristeva, and feminist filmtheorists), Cox's study demonstrates the significant interplay among ancient, medieval, and modern issues of scholarship and learning.

In her book Sarah Orne Jewett: Reconstructing Gender, Margaret Roman argues that one theme colors almost every short story and novel by the turn-of-the-century American author: each person, regardless of sex, must break free of the restrictive, polar-opposite norms of behavior traditionally assigned ...

In her book Sarah Orne Jewett: Reconstructing Gender, Margaret Roman argues that one theme colors almost every short story and novel by the turn-of-the-century American author: each person, regardless of sex, must break free of the restrictive, polar-opposite norms of behavior traditionally assigned to men and women by a patriarchal society. That society, as seen from Jewett's perspective during the late Victorian era, was one in which a competitive, active man dominates a passive, emotional woman. Frequently referring to Jewett's own New England upbringing at the hands of an unusually progressive father, Roman demonstrates how the writer, through her personal quest for freedom and through the various characters she created, strove to eliminate the necessity for rigid and narrowly defined male-female roles and relationships. With the details of Jewett's free-spirited life, Roman's book represents a solid work of literary scholarship, which traces a gender-dissolving theme throughout Jewett's writing. Whereas previous critics have focused primarily on her best-known works, including "A White Heron," Deephaven, A Country Doctor, and The Country of the Pointed Firs, Roman encompasses within her own discussion virtually all of the stories found in the nineteen volumes Jewett published during her lifetime. And although much recent criticism has centered around Jewett's strong female characters, Roman is the first to explore in depth Jewett's male characters and married couples. The book progresses through distinct phases that roughly correspond to Jewett's psychological development as a writer. In general, the characters in her early works exhibit one of two modes of behavior. Youngsters, free as Jewett was to explore the natural world of woods and field, glimpse the possibility of escape from the confining standards that society has set, though some experience turbulent and confusing adolescences where those