Samuel Richardson, dress, and discourse

Description:

"While dress is but one way of entering into a text, and a small point of entry at that, analysis of dress in Richardson's novels provides us with insights into the nature of novel writing in eighteenth-century England; into the nature of Richardson's novelistic project of constructing a legible domestic feminine body whose signification remains stable; and into the paradox that Richardson's ideal, sensible (as possessed of sensibility) female body is ultimately coded as male. It also calls into question the whole construct of the "domestic woman" and what this construct means in terms of bourgeois ideology: Is the ideal domestic woman merely a man in drag?"--Jacket.

subjects: Criticism and interpretation,  English Epistolary fiction,  Epistolary fiction, English,  History and criticism,  Richardson, samuel, 1689-1761,  Epistolary fiction, history and criticism,  English fiction & prose literature - general & miscellaneous - literary criticism,  English fiction & prose literature - 18th century - literary criticism

People: Samuel Richardson (1689-1761)