Plotting Disability in the Nineteenth-Century Novel

Clare Walker Gore

Published by Edinburgh University Press 2019

Plotting Disability in the Nineteenth-Century Novel

Clare Walker Gore

In the series Edinburgh Critical Studies in Victorian Culture

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781474455039

Overview
Contents

About this book

Examines the significance of disability in nineteenth-century fiction

Offers new insights into how disability shapes plot in nineteenth-century fiction
Investigates the impact of a developing social category on the form of the novel, opening up ways of thinking about the intersection between novelistic characterisation and categories of social organisation
Offers new readings of well-known novels by major writers such as Dickens, Eliot and James and brings these texts into conversation with work by more marginalised figures such as Yonge and Craik, considering the relationship between canon formation and the representation of disability

This book takes an exciting new approach to characterisation and plot in the Victorian novel, examining the vital narrative work performed by disabled characters. It demonstrates the centrality of disability to the Victorian novel, showing how attention to disability sheds new light on texts’ arrangement and use of bodies. It also argues that the representation of the disabled body shaped and signalled different generic traditions in nineteenth-century fiction. This wide-ranging study offers new readings of major writers including Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, George Eliot and Henry James, as well as exploring lesser known writers such as Charlotte M. Yonge and Dinah Mulock Craik.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Series Editor’s Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	vi
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	viii
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter 1 A Possible Person?: Marking the Minor Character in Dickens Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	21
Chapter 2 At the Margins of Mystery: Sensational Difference in Wilkie Collins Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	74
Chapter 3 (De)Forming Families: Disability and the Marriage Plot in Dinah Mulock Craik and Charlotte M. Yonge Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	116
Chapter 4 Terminal Decline: Physical Frailty and Moral Inheritance in George Eliot and Henry James Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	173
Coda Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	232
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	238
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	253

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 208
Illustrations
- Other: 4 B/W illustrations
Keywords: Literary Studies

eBook

Published: April 5, 2022
ISBN: 9781474455039