Elizabeth Gaskell's Smaller Stories （2021）

Lambert, Carolyn

Springer Nature Switzerland AG（2022/08発売）

• 製本 Paperback:紙装版/ペーパーバック版／ページ数 201 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9783030797072
• DDC分類 823.8

Full Description

This book re-locates Elizabeth Gaskell's 'smaller stories' in the literary and cultural context of the nineteenth century. While Gaskell is recognised as one of the major novelists of her time, the short stories that make up a large proportion of her published work have not yet received the critical attention they deserve. This study re-claims them as an indispensable part of her literary output that enables us to better contextualize and assess her achievement holistically as a highly-skilled woman of letters. The periodicals in which Gaskell's shorter pieces were published offer a microcosm of nineteenth-century society, and Gaskell took full advantage of the medium to apply a consistent and barbed challenge to cultural and gendered constructs of roles and social behaviour. Although her eminently readable prose still flows easily in her short stories, it is less likely to elide the sharp corners of domestic violence, the disabling experiences of women, the pain of death and loss, andthe complications of family life. 

Contents

1 Introduction.- 2 The Gothic and the Ghostly.- 3 Fairy Tales.- 4 Narrating Sexuality.- 5 Narrative Architecture.- 6 Conclusion.