Unsex'd Revolutionaries: Five Women Novelists of the 's
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Ty, Eleanor, PUBLISHER: University ong>ofong> Toronto Press, ong>Womenong> had been writing long before ong>theong> French Revolution, but ong>theong> reactionary character ong>ofong> ong>theong> s infused ong>theong>ir work with a public importance and an urgency. ong>Theong> decade was one ong>ofong> intense argument and reflection on ong>theong> role ong>ofong> ong>womenong> in society. Eleanor Ty studies ong>theong> ways in which five ong>womenong> writers ong>ofong> ong>theong> s politicized ong>theong> domestic or sentimental novel in response to oppression and exclusion. Influenced by radical post-revolution thinkers, Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Hays, Helen Maria Williams, Elizabeth Inchbald, and Charlotte Smith wrote fiction that questioned existing social, economic, legal and cultural practices as ong>theong>y related to ong>womenong>. In particular, ong>theong>y dealt with historically specific gender issues such as female education, ong>theong> rights and 'wrongs' ong>ofong> woman, and ong>theong> duties ong>ofong> a wife. Using historical and feminist psycho-linguistic studies as a base, Ty explores some ong>ofong> ong>theong> complexities encountered in ong>theong> ong>writingsong> ong>ofong> ong>theong>se five ong>womenong>. Through ong>theong>ir challenge to Edmund Burke's patriarchal ideas, ong>theong>y discovered strategies ong>ofong> writing based on ong>theong> maternal or female aesong>theong>tic. For ong>theong>se 'unsex'd revolutionaries, ' sentimental or domestic fiction was not just about courtship, love, and romance. ong>Theong>ir ong>writingsong> interrogate ong>theong> structures ong>ofong> society, and criticize and make relevant ong>theong> connections between ong>theong> personal and ong>theong> political, ong>theong> domestic and ong>theong> public sphere.