Fracture Feminism: The Politics of Impossible Time in British Romanticism

322 Pages·2021·2.869 MB·English

by  David Sigler

FRACTURE FEMINISM
SUNY series, Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century
—————
Pamela K. Gilbert, editor
FRACTURE FEMINISM
The Politics of Impossible Time
in British Romanticism
DAVID SIGLER
Cover art: Mary Shelley in Italy, by Louisa Amelia Albani, mixed media.
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2021 State University of New York
All rights reserved
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Name: Sigler, David, author
Title: Fracture feminism : the politics of impossible time in British romanticism /
David Sigler, author.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, [2021] | Series:
SUNY series, studies in the long nineteenth century | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: ISBN 9781438484853 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438484877
(ebook)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021939443
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
Chapter 1 The Uses of History in Wollstonecraft’s Afterlives 23
Chapter 2 Adoptive Siblings across Oceans of Futurity:
Paul and Virginia and The Victim of Prejudice 65
Chapter 3 Della Cruscan Time 115
Chapter 4 Future Poetry: Clock Time Misses Barbauld, Smith,
Richardson, and Hemans 155
Chapter 5 Gulzara and The Last Man: Worldwide-izing the
Roman à Clef 203
Conclusion 241
Notes 251
Works Cited 275
Index 301

Acknowledgments
This research was funded by an Insight Grant from the Social Sciences and
Humanities Research Council of Canada (Agency Reference Number 435-
2017-0037). The book would never have been possible without the grant,
so I’m extremely thankful for it. Several of the ideas in this book were set
in motion at the NEH Summer Seminar on “Reassessing Romanticism”
held in 2013 at the University of Nebraska, led by Stephen C. Behrendt.
I remain grateful for that opportunity and Dr. Behrendt’s mentorship. A
portion of chapter 2 appeared in an earlier form as an article entitled
“ ‘The Ocean of Futurity, Which Has No Boundaries’: The Deconstructive
Politics of Helen Maria Williams’s Translation of Paul and Virginia,” in
European Romantic Review vol. 23, no. 5, pp. 575–592. The article was
published on October 1, 2012, and is reprinted here by permission of the
publisher, Taylor & Francis Ltd., http://www.tandfonline.com.
I would like to thank everyone at SUNY Press who helped bring this
manuscript through the publication process. I especially thank Rebecca
Colesworthy, the acquisitions editor, for her enthusiasm for this project and
astonishing gumption, as well as James Peltz, the Press’s associate director
and editor-in-chief, who seamlessly covered for Rebecca as necessary along
the way. I am grateful to have had anonymous peer reviewers who took
such care and showed such great intellectual generosity with this manu-
script. They gave truly expert advice. I also thank editorial coordinator
Catherine Blackwell for her care with the details.
I have received tremendous support, intellectual and material, from
the University of Calgary. I would especially like to acknowledge Richard
Sigurdson, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, and Jacqueline Jenkins, Head of
English, as they have been enormously supportive. Startup funds, depart-
mental travel funds, and a developmental SSHRC-funded grant internally
vii
viii Acknowledgments
administered by the Faculty of Arts helped get me started on this project;
a well-timed Research and Scholarship Leave enabled the project’s com-
pletion. My more immediate colleagues have given me a strong research
community in which to develop my thinking. I want to recognize for
special thanks Karen Bourrier, Susan Cahill, Anthony Camara, Michael
Tavel Clarke, Donna Coates, Faye Halpern, Larissa Lai, Derritt Mason,
Christian Olbey, Michael Ullyot, Martin Wagner, and Jason Wiens, all of
whom offered me good advice along the way. I am grateful to those in
the Faculty of Arts who helped me develop my grant proposal—most of
all Kinga Olszewska, whose judgment I have learned always to trust, and
also Robert Oxoby and Penny Pexman, during their terms as Associate
Deans (Research). Finally, I would like to thank University of Calgary
Research Services and the librarians at University of Calgary Libraries
and Cultural Resources, particularly Melanie Boyd.
I have worked with a superb graduate research assistant over the last
several years, Isabelle Michalski, who along the way became my research
collaborator on a separate essay. I have also appreciated the chance to work
collaboratively with Celiese Lypka on two articles that, although distinct
from this book project, informed my thinking for it. Isabelle and Celiese
have been important interlocutors for me over the last few years. Less
formally, discussions with graduate students John MacPhereson, Bobby
Sze Chun Ng, and Neil Surkan have sustained me in this work.
Many extramural colleagues have been hugely supportive, both
as mentors and friends, throughout this project. They have given me
opportunities to develop this work, read pieces of work in progress, offered
advice on new directions, alerted me when things appeared to be spiraling
into futility, or suggested the perfect next thing to read. In the process,
through a blend of attentiveness, praise, and what often seemed to be
open hostility, they pushed me into better arguments. The most vital of
these allies have been Suzanne Barnett, Stephen Behrendt, Colin Carman,
David Clark, David Collings, Ashley Cross, Kellie Donovan-Condron,
Joel Faflak, Cassandra Falke, Michelle Faubert, Elizabeth Fay, Daniela
Garofalo, Michael Genovese, Erin Goss, Shoshannah Bryn Jones Square,
Michael Kramp, Devoney Looser, Nowell Marshall, Anne McCarthy, Grace
Moore, Lucy Morrison, Jonathan Mulrooney, Christopher Nagle, Jean-
Michel Rabaté, Brian Rejack, Marlon Ross, Richard Sha, Anna Shajirat,
Kate Singer, Orianne Smith, Michele Speitz, Michael Theune, Crystal
Veronie, Orrin Wang, Chris Washington, and Gary Williams. Much
could (and ought to) be said about the intellectual generosity of each of
Acknowledgments ix
these people, the opportunities they have opened for me, and the mark
they have left on this work, but I will simply express my deepest thanks
without inelegantly gushing.
Most of all, I am in awe of my unfaltering partner, Dawn Hamilton,
who unsuspectingly serves as a model of intelligence, love, feminism, and
work ethic for me. It has not escaped me how often the fracture feminists
wrote enthusiastically of “dawn,” and I believe it is apt. I wish to thank
Ms. Hamilton for not murdering me while we sheltered in place to avoid
the coronavirus. I reserve similar supreme thanks for my parents, Judy
and Murray Sigler, who have been, as ever, the picture of love, support,
and encouragement.