The Gender of Freedom: Fictions of Liberalism and the Literary Public Sphere - Softcover

Dillon, Elizabeth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0804758476 ISBN 13: 9780804758475

Publisher: Stanford University Press, 2008

Synopsis

In a sweeping reassessment of early American literature, The Gender of Freedom explores the workings of the literary public sphere-from its colonial emergence through the antebellum flourishing of sentimentalism-and places representations of and by women at the center rather than the margin of the public sphere and the politics of liberalism.

About this title

Review:

"In this highly intelligent and elegantly written book, Elizabeth Maddock Dillon makes the important observation that U.S. liberalism depends upon the concept of gender for its successful functioning and, more particularly, that women's private status has been integral to liberalism since its inception."--Legacy

"Through an impressive synthesis of critical material from a wide range of disciplines and some astute readings of political theorists from Adam Smith to Jürgen Habermas, Elizabeth Maddock Dillon has produced an intriguing and largely persuasive account of the relationship between liberalism and gender difference."--William and Mary Quarterly

Synopsis:

In a sweeping reassessment of early American literature, "The Gender of Freedom" explores the workings of the literary public sphere - from its colonial emergence through the antebellum flourishing of sentimentalism. The "fictions of liberalism" explored in this book are those of marriage and motherhood, sentimental domesticity, and heterosexual desire - narratives that structure the private realm upon which liberalism depends for its meaning and value.

About this edition

• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0804758476
• ISBN 13: 9780804758475
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 324