Sentimental Manipulations: Duty and Desire in the Novels of Sophie Cottin.
详细信息   
  • 作者:Heitzman ; Brenna K.
  • 学历:Ph.D.
  • 年:2013
  • 导师:Stewart, Philip,eadvisorLongino, Micheleecommittee memberMoi, Torilecommittee memberDubois, Laurentecommittee member
  • 毕业院校:Duke University
  • Department:Romance Studies
  • ISBN:9781303025310
  • CBH:3558170
  • Country:USA
  • 语种:English
  • FileSize:1909316
  • Pages:303
文摘
"Sentimental Manipulations: Duty and Desire in the Novels of Sophie Cottin" examines four novels by Sophie Cottin, from 1798 until 1806. A forgotten but once-popular novelist, Cottin used the theme of motherhood to develop the relationship between women and desire and duty. These novels use the sentimental novel in different ways that challenge the limits of genre and confront social perceptions of motherhood. The generic transitions reveal subversive representations of womens sexuality and choice. The authors rewriting of motherhood and genre thus plays a crucial role in understanding the complex and developing notion of the sentimental novel in a period of transition after the Revolution. The eighteenth century gave rise to more structured gender divisions in society that provided little space for womens freedom outside of the patriarchal dictates of the family and motherhood. Jean-Jacques Rousseaus 1761 publication of Julie; ou la Nouvelle Hé;loï;se and his 1762 publication of Emile; ou de lé;ducation are thought to have defined social roles for women in relation to their reproductive abilities. The novel, as a site of social production, was understood to have influential moral implications and was used to confront and maintain socially accepted behavior. Mother-child depictions in literature, therefore, reveal socially acceptable behavior for women. My first chapter examines the development of motherhood as a form of social duty imposed on women. I explore the Rousseauian themes in Cottins first sentimental epistolary novel, Claire dAlbe, published in 1978. The representation of adultery reveals the complex relationship between womens duty, virtue, and sexuality. In my second chapter, I analyze how Cottin manipulates the epistolary sentimental genre in Amé;lie Mansfield, published in 1802. Cottin creates narrative spaces that privilege womens expression and redefine womens choice through a violent and controversial depiction of the protagonists suicide. I explore the social implications of the removal of the suicide scene from all publications of the novel after 1805. My third chapter examines the incorporation of elements of the travel narrative into the sentimental genre in Malvina, published in 1800, and Elisabeth; ou les exilé;s de Sibé;rie, published in 1805. Through the description of travel, I explore Cottins representations of duty and womens education at two distinct moments in her publishing career.

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