eBook

Women Novelists Before Jane Austen

Corman, Brian

2008,2009

Overview

By the time Ian Watt publishedThe Rise of the Novel. in 1957, it was clear that many women novelists before Jane Austen had been overlooked in critical studies of literature and that some of them had been completely forgotten by the reading public. In this book, Brian Corman explores the question of how and why this came about. Corman provides a systematic survey of the reputations of early women novelists as canons of the novel developed over a period of roughly two hundred years, and, in so doing, suggests reasons for their frequent exclusion. Women Novelists before Jane Austenchallenges the view that exclusion from the canon was a simple function of gender and goes deeper to examine potential reasons why certain women writers were overlooked. In the process, it provides an overview of histories of the British novel from the beginning through to the mid-twentieth century, ending with the publication of Watt's famous text. Further, Corman offers a prolegomenon to the important recovery work of the late-twentieth century in which many revised accounts of the history of the novel appeared, essentially improving the scope covered by Watt. This study historicizes the place of early women novelists in the British canon in order to provide an informed context for current views.

• Publisher: University of Toronto Press,University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing
• Subject: 18th century / Criticism / Criticism -- Great Britain -- History / Critique -- Grande-Bretagne -- Histoire / English fiction / English fiction -- 18th century -- History and criticism / English fiction -- Women authors -- History and criticism / Femmes et littérature -- Grande-Bretagne -- Histoire / Great Britain / History / History and criticism / Language & Literature / LITERARY CRITICISM / LITERARY CRITICISM / Women Authors / Roman anglais -- 18e siècle -- Histoire et critique / Romancières anglaises -- Histoire / Women and literature / Women and literature -- Great Britain -- History / Women Authors / Women novelists, English / Women novelists, English -- History / Écrits de femmes anglais -- Histoire et critique
• ISBN: 9781442610477, 1442610476, 0802097707, 9780802097705, 9781442692473, 9781442689633, 1442692472, 1442689633