Feminist Readings of Edith Wharton: From Silence to Speech PDF
Preview Feminist Readings of Edith Wharton: From Silence to Speech
AMERICAN L ITERATURE READINGS IN THE 21ST CENTURY Series Editor: Linda Wagner-Martin American Literature Readings in the 21st Century publishes works by contemporary critics that help shape criticaJ opinion regarding literature of tJ1e nineteenth and twentieth century in the United Stares. Published by PaJgrave Macmillan: Freak Shows in Modern American Imagination: Constrt1eting the Damaged Body from Willa Cather to Truman Capote By Thon1as Fahy A rab American Literary Fictions, Cultures, and Politics By Steven Salaita Women & Race in Contemporary U.S. Writing: From Faulkner to Morrison By Kelly Lynch Reames American Political Poetry in the 21st Century By Michael Dowdy Science and Technology in the Age ofH awthorne, Melville, Twain, and James: Thinking and Writing Electricity By Sam Halliday F. Scott Fitzgerald's Racial Angles and the Business ofL iterary Greatness By Michael Nowlin Sex, Race, and Family in Contemporary American Short Stories By Melissa Bostrom Democracy in Contemporary U.S. Women's Poetry By Nicky Marsh James Merri!! and WH. Auden: Ho»iosexiiality and Poetic Influence By Piotr K. Gwiazda Contemporary US. Latino/a Literary Criticis,n Edited by Lyn Di Iorio Sandfn and Richard Perez The Hero in Contnnporary American Fiction: The Works ofS aul Bellow and Don DeLillo By Stephanie S. Halldorson R ace and Identity in Hemingway's Fiction By Amy L. Strong Edith Wharton and the Conversations ofL iterary Modernism By Jennifer Haytock The Anti-Hero in the American Novel: From Joseph Helter to Kurt Vonnegut By David Simn1ons Indians, Environment, and Identity on the Borders ofA merican Literature: From Faulkner and Morrison to Walker and Sitko By Lindsey Claire Smith The American Landscape in the Poetry efF rost, Bishop, and Ashbery: The House Abandoned By Marit J. MacArthur Na,·rating Class in Arnerican Fiction By William Dow The Culture of Soft Work: Labor, Gender, and Race in Postmodern American Narrative By Heather J. Hicks Cormac McCarthy: Am.erican Canticles By Kenneth Lincoln Elizabeth Spencer's Complicated Cartographies: Reimagining Home, the South, and Southern Literary Production By Catherine Seltzer Feminist Readings ofE dith Wharton: Frorn Silence to Speech By Dianne L. Chambers FEMINIST READINGS OF EDITH WHARTON From Silence to Speech D ianne L. Chambers palgrave macmillan FEMINIST READINGS OF EDITH WHARTON Copyright © Dianne L. Chambers, 2009. All rights reserved. First published in 2009 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States-a division of St. Martin's Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan. a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN: 978-0-230--61765-0 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Chambers, Dianne L. Feminist readings of Edith Wharton : from silence to speech / Dianne L. Chambers. p. cm.- (American literature readings in the 21st century) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-230-61765- 0 (alk. paper) 1. Wharton. Edith, 1862-1937-Criticism and interpretation. 2. Feminism and literature- United States- History-20th century. 3. Women in literature. 4. Sex role in literature. I. Title. PS3545.H16Z638 2009 813'.52-dc22 2009011850 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: December 2009 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America. CONTENTS Acknowledgments Vll 1 Introduction 1 Wharton and Feminist Criticism 15 2 Wharton, Women, and Authorship at the 25 Turn of the Century 3 Competing Discourses and the Word in 49 The House of Mirth 4 The Unravelling of Story in The Reef 67 97 5 Seduction and Language in Summer 6 Gender and Performance in The Glimpses 125 of the Moon 151 Conclusion 157 Notes 197 Bibliography 207 Index
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