The Anxieties of Idleness: Idleness in Eighteenth-century British Literature and Culture (Bucknell Studies in Eighteenth Century Literature and Culture) - Hardcover

Jordan, Sarah

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1611481686 ISBN 13: 9781611481686

Publisher: Bucknell University Press, 2003

Synopsis

The Anxieties of Idleness: Idleness in Eighteenth-Century British Literature and Culture investigates the preoccupation with idleness that haunts the British eighteenth century. Sarah Jordan argues that as Great Britain began to define itself as a nation during this period, one important quality it claimed for itself was industriousness. But this claim was undermined and complicated by, among other factors, the importance of leisure to the upholding of class status, thus making idleness a subject of intense anxiety. One result of this anxiety was an increased surveillance of the supposed idleness of marginalized and less powerful members of society: the working classes, the nonwhite races, and women.

About this title

Review:

"Jordan marshals an impressive array of well-chosen examples from conduct books, tracts, social and religious materials, literature, and secondary sources [...yet] the text reads surprisingly well and is not overburdened by its full scholarly apparatus."--H. Benoist

About the Author:

Sarah Jordan is an associate professor of English at Albion College, where she teaches classes in eighteenth-century British literature and Romanticism. Her articles have appeared in The Age of Johnson and Eighteenth-Century Life.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bucknell University Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 1611481686
• ISBN 13: 9781611481686
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 300