Gender Portrayal in Maria Edgeworth’s Novels
| Thesis title in Czech: | Genderové vyobrazení v románech Marie Edgeworthové |
|---|---|
| Thesis title in English: | Gender Portrayal in Maria Edgeworth’s Novels |
| Key words: | Maria Edgeworth|anglický román|ženské autorky 18. a 19. století|literární dcery|gender|didaktická tradice|výchova|Jane Austen|Frances Burney |
| English key words: | Maria Edgeworth|English novel|18th and 19th century women writers|literary daughters|gender|didactic tradition|education|Jane Austen|Frances Burney |
| Academic year of topic announcement: | 2021/2022 |
| Thesis type: | diploma thesis |
| Thesis language: | angličtina |
| Department: | Department of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures (21-UALK) |
| Supervisor: | Mgr. Miroslava Horová, Ph.D. |
| Author: | hidden - assigned and confirmed by the Study Dept. |
| Date of registration: | 29.06.2022 |
| Date of assignment: | 29.06.2022 |
| Administrator's approval: | approved |
| Confirmed by Study dept. on: | 10.08.2023 |
| Date and time of defence: | 06.09.2023 00:00 |
| Date of electronic submission: | 10.08.2023 |
| Date of proceeded defence: | 06.09.2023 |
| Submitted/finalized: | committed by student and finalized |
| Opponents: | PhDr. Soňa Nováková, CSc. |
| Guidelines |
| This thesis will discuss the portrayal of key characters in Maria Edgeworth’s novels with emphasis mainly on the development of her female heroines. Nevertheless, male characters are to be included as well since the development of and the shift in the relationship between the female characters and their male counterparts is reflected in the relationship dynamic, where the opposite sides serve as a reflective surface to each other and where we can see the interaction gradually increase as the novels are written chronologically. The first part of the thesis will deal with the author’s life and socio-literary influences that define her, focusing on the context of her family in relation to the contemporary discourse concerning women and women authors, and on her progressive social views, as she published works concerning topics such as new ideas in education or her beliefs about how women should behave towards men. This shows up as a tendency to include moral and pedagogical implications in her novels that the author herself was conscious of including, and which can be linked with the preoccupation with didactic approaches typical of the era. What is more, some of her works are even mentioned in Jane Spencer’s overview of the “Didactic Tradition.”
In the main part of the thesis, I will focus on the analysis of gender portrayal in Castle Rackrent (1800), Belinda (1801), Ennui (1809), The Absentee (1812) and Helen (1834) In this section, I will comment on the characterization of the heroines and proceed with a diachronic comparison of the texts, in an attempt to show how Edgeworth's views pertaining to femininity and its social and literary performance undergo a change from rather dismissive treatment to a more complex appreciation and study as the women characters gradually gain more value in the life of the male protagonists, and thus rise to more equal positions, since the patriarchally structured society set the opinion of a male as a standard while easily discrediting the other. The critical commentary will also include a mention of other prominent women authors of the period, chiefly Fanny Burney and Jane Austen, with the aim to discuss connections to the common conventions in the literary world at the time, such as the marriage plot, usage of letter writing and satiric tendencies concerning literary modes in the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century novel writing. The relevant work of Mary Wollstonecraft will be consulted as well, chiefly to provide a more informed contemporary context of the debate concerning female authorship and the shifting place of women in society in general. The ultimate objective of this thesis is to pose a question of how the gender aspect of Edgeworth’s novels connects to the issue of restrictions society placed on femininity at the time while situating Edgeworth’s writing in the context of her relevant contemporaries. |
| References |
| Primary Sources:
Edgeworth, Maria. Belinda. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. Edgeworth, Maria. Castle Rackrent and Ennui. London: Penguin Books, 1992. Edgeworth, Maria. Castle Rackrent and The Absentee. Ware: Wordsworth, 1994. Edgeworth Maria. Helen. London: Sort of Books, 2010. Secondary Sources: Butler, Marilyn. Maria Edgeworth. A Literary Biography. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972. Butler, Marilyn. Romantics, Rebels and Reactionaries: English Literature and its Background 1760-1830. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981. Corbett, Mary Jean. “Public Affections and Familial Politics: Burke, Edgeworth, and the ‘Common Naturalization’ of Great Britain.” ELH 61.4 (1994): 877-897. JSTORhttps://www.jstor.org/stable/2873362 Foster, John Wilson. The Cambridge Companion to the Irish Novel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Gamer, Michael. “Maria Edgeworth and the Romance of Real Life.” NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction 34.2 (2001): 232 – 266. JSTORhttps://www.jstor.org/stable/1346217?seq=4#metadata_info_tab_contents Hollingworth, Brian. Maria Edgeworth’s Irish Writing: Language, History, Politics. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 1997. Jones, Vivian. Women in the Eighteenth Century: Constructions of Femininity. London: Routledge, 1990. Kaufmann, Heidi and Fauske, Christopher J. An Uncomfortable Authority: Maria Edgeworth and her Contexts. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2005. Kirkpatrick, Kathryn. "Going to Law about That Jointure": Women and Property in “Castle Rackrent.” The Canadian Journal of Irish Studies 22.1 (1996): 21-29. JSTORhttps://www.jstor.org/stable/25513040 Kowalski-Wallace, Elizabeth. Their Father’s Daughters: Hannah More, Maria Edgeworth, and Patriarchal Complicity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. Schaffer, Julia. “Not Subordinate: Empowering Women in the Marriage-Plot – The Novels of Frances Burney, Maria Edgeworth and Jane Austen.” Criticism 34.1 (1992): 51-73. JSTORhttps://www.jstor.org/stable/23113581 Spencer, Jane. The Rise of the Woman Novelist: From Aphra Behn to Jane Austen. Oxford: Blackwell, 1986. Spender, Dale. Mothers of the Novel. London: Pandora, 1986. Stone, Lawrence. The Family, Sex and Marriage in England. London: Penguin Books, 1990. Todd, Jane. The Sign of Angelica: Women, Writing and Fiction, 1660-1800. London: Virgo Press, 1989. |