Publication date:
12 January 2012Length of book:
198 pagesPublisher
Fairleigh Dickinson University PressDimensions:
240x162mm6x9"
ISBN-13: 9781611474954
Novel Histories: British Women Writing History, 1760–1830 argues that British women’s history and historical fiction in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries changed not only the shape but also the political significance of women’s writing. At a time when women’s participation in the republic of letters was both celebrated and reviled, these authors took cues from developments that revolutionized British history writing to push the limits of narrated history to respond to contemporary national politics. Through an examination of the conventions of historical and literary genres; historiography during the period; and the gendering of civic and literary roles, this study shows not only a social, political, and literary lineage among women’s history writing and fiction but also among women’s writing and the writing of history.
Kasmer (Clark Univ.) incorporates revisionary studies of both Enlightenment historiography and women's writing in her argument. These revisionary narratives complicate the intersection of genre and gender during the period and help to explain how women explored a variety of issues in fluid, complex literary forms. Genres such as the novel, the gothic tale, drama, and history helped women move from the domestic to the public sphere in ways that point to women's fuller participation in the republic of letters than has previously been understood. By contextualizing similarities in historiographical approach between British women writers and Enlightenment luminaries such as Hume and Kant, Kasmer calls attention to the unacknowledged complexity of these women as writers and thinkers. Such affinities are especially convincing proof of her claim that these women demand further critical attention, leading to perhaps the most interesting of her claims—that women writing history challenge the traditional period boundaries between 'eighteenth century' and 'Romantic' studies. The grandeur of this suggested reconceptualization points to the need for further large-scale consideration of these questions and their ramifications. Summing Up: Highly recommended.