The social life of criticism : gender, critical writing, and the politics of belonging /

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Stern, Kimberly Jo, 1977- author.
Imprint:	Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, [2016]
Description:	viii, 240 pages ; 24 cm
Language:	English
Subject:	Feminist literary criticism. Criticism -- Great Britain -- History -- 18th century. Criticism -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century. English literature -- Women authors -- History and criticism. Women and literature -- Great Britain -- History -- 18th century. Women and literature -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century. Criticism. English literature -- Women authors. Feminist literary criticism. Women and literature. Great Britain. Criticism, interpretation, etc. History.
Format:	Print Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/10921519

Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:	9780472130078 0472130072 9780472122240
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary:	"The Social Life of Criticism explores the cultural representation of the female critic in Victorian Britain, focusing especially on how women writers imagined themselves--in literary essays, periodical reviews, and even works of fiction--as participants in complex networks of literary exchange. Kimberly Stern proposes that in response to the "male collectivity" prominently featured in critical writings, female critics adopted a social and sociological understanding of the profession, often reimagining the professional networks and communities they were so eager to join. This engaging study begins by looking at the eighteenth century, when critical writing started to assume the institutional and generic structures we associate with it today, and examines a series of case studies that illuminate how women writers engaged with the forms of intellectual sociability that defined nineteenth-century criticism--including critical dialogue, the club, the salon, and the publishing firm. In doing so, it clarifies the fascinating rhetorical and political debates surrounding the figure of the female critic and charts how women writers worked both within and against professional communities. Ultimately, Stern contends that gender was a formative influence on critical practice from the very beginning, presenting the history of criticism as a history of gender politics. While firmly grounded in literary studies, The Social Life of Criticism combines an attention to historical context with a deep investment in feminist scholarship, social theory, and print culture. The book promises to be of interest not only to professional academics and graduate students in nineteenth-century literature but also to scholars in a wide range of disciplines, including literature, intellectual history, cultural studies, gender theory, and sociology"--

Table of Contents:

1. Reimagined Communities: An Introduction
2. The Critic as Clubman: Origins of the Social Life of Criticism
Virtual Networking: Periodical Clubs and the Public Sphere
Gendering Discourse: Collectivity and Female Judgment
Tattling on Tradition: The Cases of Jenny Distaff and Mrs. Crackenthorpe
A Network of Spies: The Female Spectator
3. The Critic as Interlocutor: Anna Jameson and the Politics of Dialogue
The Round Table: Male Collectivity and the Nineteenth-Century Critic
Scripting Gender: Critical Discourse and the Politics of Gallantry
Solitary Confinement: Anna Jameson and the Sentimental Woman Writer
Opening a Dialogue: Female Critics in Conversation
4. The Critic as Sociologist: Sociable Dissent in the Work of George Eliot
Laws of Progress: The Sociological Foundations of the Westminster Review
A Common Fund: The Female Salon and Critical Collectivity
A Fellowship in High Knowledge: Dororhea Brooke as Female Critic
The Critic in Exile: Impressions of Theophrastus Such
5. Critics without Borders: The Andsocial Criticism of Eliza Lynn Linton and Vernon Lee
Tootles and Screeds: The Problem of Classification
The Shrieking Sisterhood: Eliza Lynn Linton and the Limits of Community
A First-Rate Fellow: The Case of Jane Osborne
An Antisocial Tirade: Vernon Lee's Althea
Epilogue: A Society of Outsiders: Feminist Criticism and Collectivity after the Nineteenth Century
Notes
Bibliography
Index

The social life of criticism : gender, critical writing, and the politics of belonging /

Similar Items