Style, gender, and fantasy in nineteenth-century American women's writing /
Beam, Dorri.
Style, gender, and fantasy in nineteenth-century American women's writing / Dorri Beam. - Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2010. - vii, 260 p. ; 24 cm. - Cambridge studies in American literature and culture ; 160 .
Includes bibliographical references (p. 235-253) and index.
Introduction: Highly wrought style -- Florid fantasies : Fuller, Stephens and the 'other' language of flowers -- Sensing the soul : mesmerism, feminism, and highly wrought fiction -- Harriet Prescott Spofford's Philosophy of composition -- Pauline Hopkins' Baroque folds : the styled form of Winona -- Coda.The value of ornament : Gilman and Wharton.
"Dorri Beam presents an important contribution to nineteenth-century fiction by examining how and why a florid and sensuous style came to be adopted by so many authors. Discussing a diverse range of authors, including Margaret Fuller and Pauline Hopkins, Beam traces this style through a variety of literary endeavors and reconstructs the political rationale behind the writers' commitments to this form of prose. Beam provides both close readings of a number of familiar and unfamiliar works and an overarching account of the importance of this form of writing, suggesting new ways of looking at how gender determines literary style. Style, Gender, and Fantasy in Nineteenth Century American Women's Writing redefines our understanding of women's relation to aesthetics and their contribution to both American literary romanticism and feminist reform. This illuminating account provides valuable new insights for scholars of American literature and women's writing"--
9780521769686 (cloth)
American fiction
Women and literature
Romanticism
Feminism and literature
Women authors, American
Literary style
Aesthetics in literature.--Women authors--History and criticism.--History--United States--19th century.--History--United States--19th century.--History--United States--19th century.--Aesthetics.--19th century--Sex differences.
813.309
Style, gender, and fantasy in nineteenth-century American women's writing / Dorri Beam. - Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2010. - vii, 260 p. ; 24 cm. - Cambridge studies in American literature and culture ; 160 .
Includes bibliographical references (p. 235-253) and index.
Introduction: Highly wrought style -- Florid fantasies : Fuller, Stephens and the 'other' language of flowers -- Sensing the soul : mesmerism, feminism, and highly wrought fiction -- Harriet Prescott Spofford's Philosophy of composition -- Pauline Hopkins' Baroque folds : the styled form of Winona -- Coda.The value of ornament : Gilman and Wharton.
"Dorri Beam presents an important contribution to nineteenth-century fiction by examining how and why a florid and sensuous style came to be adopted by so many authors. Discussing a diverse range of authors, including Margaret Fuller and Pauline Hopkins, Beam traces this style through a variety of literary endeavors and reconstructs the political rationale behind the writers' commitments to this form of prose. Beam provides both close readings of a number of familiar and unfamiliar works and an overarching account of the importance of this form of writing, suggesting new ways of looking at how gender determines literary style. Style, Gender, and Fantasy in Nineteenth Century American Women's Writing redefines our understanding of women's relation to aesthetics and their contribution to both American literary romanticism and feminist reform. This illuminating account provides valuable new insights for scholars of American literature and women's writing"--
9780521769686 (cloth)
American fiction
Women and literature
Romanticism
Feminism and literature
Women authors, American
Literary style
Aesthetics in literature.--Women authors--History and criticism.--History--United States--19th century.--History--United States--19th century.--History--United States--19th century.--Aesthetics.--19th century--Sex differences.
813.309