Performativity in Elizabeth Gaskell’s Shorter Fiction

Beschreibung

'This short and accessible study will appeal to all students of Victorian literature seeking to integrate the literary theory of ‘performativity’ within their close reading practice.'— Elisabeth Jay, Emerita Professor of English at Oxford Brookes University, UK
This book simultaneously examines the specific theoretical issues raised by Elizabeth Gaskell’s use of characterization in her shorter fiction, and addresses the larger question of how literary critics ought to use theory. The text gives a history of Judith Butler’s theory of performativity and the uptake of that theory in literary criticism, and also provides detailed close reading of Gaskell’s fiction—both frequently examined texts like Cranford, Mary Barton, and Wives and Daughters, and some that are less often studied, such as “Lizzie Leigh” and Cousin Phillis. The book argues that as theory becomes naturalized into the vocabulary of literary scholars, it often becomes more optimistic and less specific. In discussing the naturalization of theory exemplified by the application of performativity to Gaskell, the book advances general principles on the use of theory. It can be read as scholarship or used as a textbook in literary methods courses.



Examines the specific theoretical issues raised by Elizabeth Gaskell’s characterization in her shorter fiction, and looks outward to the larger question of how literary critics ought to use theory Uses performativity in Elizabeth Gaskell's work as a case study to illustrate the larger issue, both producing an argument about Gaskell and also staking out a position on how far we can go in adapting theory Argues how to interpret Elizabeth Gaskell's characters within their own literary and cultural content, and how best to use theory when reading literature

Autor*in

Melissa Schaub

Themen in »Performativity in Elizabeth Gaskell’s Shorter Fiction«

Elizabeth Gaskell Judith Butler Theory of performativity Cranford Gender theory

Stimmen zu »Performativity in Elizabeth Gaskell’s Shorter Fiction«

Details

Link teilen