The Work of Women: Middle Class Domesticity in Eighteenth Century British Literature

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dc.citation.firstpage4en_US
dc.citation.issueNumberSpringen_US
dc.citation.journalTitleRice Historical Reviewen_US
dc.citation.lastpage14en_US
dc.citation.volumeNumber2en_US
dc.contributor.authorMcDougal, Abien_US
dc.contributor.illustratorDwyer, Meaganen_US
dc.date.accessioned2017-06-15T13:51:39Zen_US
dc.date.available2017-06-15T13:51:39Zen_US
dc.date.issued2017en_US
dc.descriptionThis paper was written in Eighteenth Century British Fiction (ENGL 333), taught b yDr. Betty Joseph.en_US
dc.description.abstractThis essay considers how British literature in the eighteenth century participated in creating a singularly domestic image of women. Addressing gender roles, Samuel Richardson’s Pamela, Mary Hays’s Emma Courtney, and Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey form a literary progression with which to compare nonfiction historical sources. The critique suggests how the changing economic framework disenfranchised women as it enabled men to advance. It further identifies three aspects contributing to women’s confinement to the home: first, growing authority over domestic staff; second, responsibility over children’s education; and third, a supposed inability to engage with public, political thought. Furthermore, it recognizes how the domestic sphere simultaneously became a women’s source of authority while preventing her from engaging with the world at large. Within these topics, the essay considers how a growing feminist voice in British fiction toward the end of the eighteenth century allowed female authors to push against the devaluation of women.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipRice History Departmenten_US
dc.format.extent11 ppen_US
dc.identifier.citationMcDougal, Abi. Dwyer, Meagan (illustrator). "The Work of Women: Middle Class Domesticity in Eighteenth Century British Literature." <i>Rice Historical Review,</i> 2, no. Spring (2017) Rice University: 4-14. https://doi.org/10.25611/m-00057.en_US
dc.identifier.digitalMcDougal-RHR-2017-Springen_US
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.25611/m-00057en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1911/94858en_US
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.publisherRice Universityen_US
dc.relation.IsPartOfSeriesSpring 2017en_US
dc.rightsThis article is licensed under a CC-BY license; copyright remains with the authors.en_US
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/en_US
dc.titleThe Work of Women: Middle Class Domesticity in Eighteenth Century British Literatureen_US
dc.typeJournal articleen_US
dc.type.dcmiTexten_US
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