Identifier
etd-0129103-124729
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
English
Document Type
Dissertation
Abstract
“Subversive Bodies: Embodiment as Discursive Strategy in Women’s Popular Literature of the Long Eighteenth Century” examines literary representations of the body as strategies of resistance. This study demonstrates that Manley's Secret Memoirs from the New Atalantis, Haywood's Female Spectator, and Burney's Journal and Letters, as well as unpublished receipt books for medicinal and cosmetic preparations, challenge the prevailing masculinist notion of a passive, distinct topography of womanhood and lay the groundwork for a feminist tradition of recognizing the body as an explicit part of experience. Tracing the origins of today's critical perspectives, my study draws on the insights of recent feminist theories of the body but remains historically contextualized through its focus on medical science and law. It demonstrates that the bodies in Manley, Haywood, Burney, and unpublished receipt books challenge the bodily constructions and associated gender meanings that the disciplines of medical science and law have traditionally reinforced. My analysis deepens our contemporary understanding of the complex relations between gender, bodies, and discourse in general.
Date
2003
Document Availability at the Time of Submission
Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide.
Recommended Citation
Thompson, Phyllis Ann, "Subversive bodies: embodiment as discursive strategy in women's popular literature of the long eighteenth century" (2003). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 2073.
https://repository.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/2073
Committee Chair
Jim S. Borck
DOI
10.31390/gradschool_dissertations.2073