British women writers and race : 1788-1818 : narrations of modernity

This page intentionally left blank vii Contents Acknowledgements ix ix Acknowledgements Books are not written in isolation, no matter how much a writer feels it is the case. Along the way, debts, many undeclared and unintentional, are collected. The writing of this book was no exception. Intellectual debt is to be acknowledged to all the teachers who have ever taught me: they whetted my appetite for study and they also gave me a thirst to learn. Of course, all errors of interpretation are mine, not theirs. I have written this book for my children, Emma and James; may that knowing glint in their eyes never lose its sparkle. My wife, Jennifer, has given me unconditional support during the long years of research and writing. My mother, Pat, has been a stalwart assistant, albeit by email! I am grateful for permission to reproduce extracts from the following copyright material: "Presenting a unique sociological examination of women writers and 'race', this original study fills a gap in the literature of this period by focusing on women's literary works of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Wright offers a sociological perspective drawing from a range of academic disciplines, particularly literature, history and cultural studies, and traces the emergence of British modernity through the writings of a select group of women writers of diverse political and philosophical affiliations. Writers discussed include Jane Austen, Hannah More, Fanny Burney, Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley and Maria Edgeworth, of diverse political and philosophical affiliations. Engagingly written, this book makes a strong contribution to issues in the sociology of literature and social history, and includes a helpful comprehensive bibliography which will be of use to scholars and students researching on this period."--BOOK JACKET

Wright traces the emergence of English modernity by examining, in a number of different ways, the writings of literary women of diverse philosophical and political affiliations. He finds that late eighteenth-century women writers mobilized a racial currency in their language, and, as recent scholarship has shown. The Romantic era packed with its significant linkages to empire and race. He describes, for example, how Jane Austin approached the issues of empire, including slavery, how the French Revolution and its tenets affected Mary Wollstonecraft and British raciology, how the questions of nature, and how religion and science of the period informed rationality and religion, creating a racially-imbued other. Women writers also under review in this work include Maria Edgeworth, Fanny Burney, and Mary Shelley. Annotation ©2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

This book presents a unique sociological examination of British raciology, focusing on women's literary works of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and drawing from a range of academic disciplines, particularly literature, history and cultural studies. Wright traces the emergence of British modernity through the writings of a select group of women writers (including Jane Austen, Hannah More, Fanny Burney, Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley and Maria Edgeworth) of diverse political and philosophical affiliations, and fills a gap in scholarship on feminist accounts of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century women's writing. Front Matter....Pages i-xvii The Romantic Period, Race and Enlightened Feminism....Pages 1-21 Politics of Population: Empire, Slavery and Race....Pages 22-49 The French Revolution and British Raciology....Pages 50-83 Moral Economies of Nature, Religion and Science....Pages 84-127 Back Matter....Pages 128-204