Thomas Malthus and maternal bodies politic
Gender, Race, and Empire
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3132983 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Randi Lise Davenport (0000-0002-1141-9785, Alma College, corresponding author), Randi Davenport (Alma College, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1995 |
| Volume | 4 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 415-439 |
| Publication date | 1995-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Women s History Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0961-2025 • E-ISSN: 1747-583X |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/09612029500200180 |
| OpenAlex | W4235470940 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 2 |
This essay explores the uneasy fit of representations of the Victorian monarchy and maternal metaphors of state with Malthusian doctrine and the debates over colonial initiatives and population pressures. Malthus's work on the principle of population authorized a potent mid-Victorian narrative which viewed the exalted body of the mother – and, by metaphoric homology, that of the state – as diseased, corrupt, and in imminent danger of putrefaction and decay. In Malthusian discourse, the colonies became the absolute sign of the pathology eating its way to the heart of the body politic. Malthusian discourse re-gendered the early nineteenth-century social body so that it became a silent, passive space upon which discursive expressions of the masculine could act. In the process, it also brought together troublesome conceptions of both race and gender to make a case for imperial progress and expansion
Aesthetics · Art · Body politic · Colonialism · Doctrine · Empire · Literature · Monarchy · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Population · Sociology · Australian History and Society · Demography · Gender Studies · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · History · Law · Philosophy · Race, History, and American Society
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,23 |
| Citation span | 2013 - 2023 (11) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |