Rakes, Coquettes and Republican Patriarchs

Class, Gender and Nation in Early American Sentimental Fiction

Bibliographic Data

ID8894897
AuthorsGareth Evans (0000-0002-5646-2576), Gareth Lloyd Evans (0000-0001-9040-5519, corresponding author)
Year1995
Volume25
Issue3
Pages41-62
Publication date1995-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCanadian Review of American Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0007-7720 • E-ISSN: 1710-114X
PublisherUniversity of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.3138/cras-025-03-04
OpenAlexW2037976051
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited29

A number of recent studies underline the novel's role in the formation and consolidation of American middle-class identity (Brodhead 1991; Davidson 1986; Hansen 1991 a, 1991b; Lewis 1987). However, when these studies turn to assess the politics of sentimental novels such as William Hill Brown's The Power of Sympathy ([1789] 1969), Hannah Webster Foster's The Coquette ([1794] 1986), and Susanna Rowson's Charlotte Temple ([1797] 1986), they either deny sentimental fiction's particular role in middle-class development (Davidson 1986),1 or fail to elaborate on Ian Watt's claims for sentimental fiction's middle-class affiliations (see Hansen 1991a, 199lb; Lewis 1987; Watt 1963). In particular, those who have followed in Watt's footsteps have avoided grappling with what it means to apply the phrase "middle-class novel" to fictions produced in a culture that still used class terminology only sparingly, and lacked a coherent "middle-class" to which that term might be applied (Blumin 1989, 19)

Art · Linguistics · Literature · Middle class · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Sympathy · Terminology · Watt · History · Law · Literature: history, themes, analysis · Philosophy · Psychology

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