The Masochistic Pleasures of Sentimental Literature (ebook)

Argumento de The Masochistic Pleasures of Sentimental Literature (ebook)

"Noble's flexible and dazzling close reading of Stowe, Warner, and Dickinson are artful, and she usefully demonstrates that exploring the variations of individualistic psychological response is key to understanding the work of sentimental discourse."--Rebecca Wanzo, American Literature

"This book does an admirable job of assessing the cultural and libidinal values attached to sentimental fiction and its prevalent tropology of erotic domination in 19th century writing by women."--Virginia Quarterly Review

One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2000

"A well-written and sophisticated study of nineteenth-century female masochism and its expression in the writing of middle-class American women of the period. Marianne Noble's plan is impressive: she is at once a thoughtful theorist and an admirable close reader of texts. The result is a work that engages in an illuminating and thought-provoking manner with extremely complex issues."--Suzanne Juhasz, University of Colorado

"Marianne Noble's book is the first study of sentimentality in American women's writing to go decisively beyond the impasse created by the Douglas-Tomkins debate. It brings acute and sophisticated perception to the study of a group of writers whose fate has frequently been to serve as stalking horses for other issues, rather than as objects of individual study in themselves. As a psychoanalytically oriented text, it is remarkably clear and persuasive, using theory to illuminate the dynamics of masochistic fantasy without obscurantism. This is a wonderful book."--Paula Bennett, Southern Illinois University

"[A] complex, nuanced volume . . .Though the author abundantly documents the oppressive aspects of fantasies of masochistic desire, she also traces the kinds of power and pleasure produced in works that eroticize female attraction to pain and submission to male domination."--Choice0Acknowledgments vii
Introduction "Weird Curves": Masochism and Feminism 3
One Masochistic Discourses of Womanhood 26
Two Sentimental Masochism 61
Tbe Parallel Structures of Sentimentalism and Masochism 62
"The Lineaments of the Divine Master" 85
Three "An Ecstasy of Apprehension": The Erotics, of Domination in The Wide, Wide World 94
The Making of a Masochist 96
Horsewhipping and the Exploration of Desire 113
Four The Ecstasies of Sentimental Wounding in Uncle Tom's Cabin 126
The Epistemology of Wounds 128
A Raging, Burning Storm of Feeling 136
Five The Revenge of Cato's Daughter: Emily Dickinson's Uses of Sentimental Masochism 147
The Power of Sentimental Masochism 157
The Erotics of Sentimental Masochism 164
The Presence of Sentimental Masochism 174
Conclusion The Possibility of Masochism 190
Notes 199
Works Cited 235
Index 251