Description
In Pregnancy in the Victorian Novel-the first book-length study of the topic-Livia Arndal Woods traces the connections between literary treatments of pregnancy and the medicalization of pregnancy and childbirth occurring over the long nineteenth century. Woods uses the problem of pregnancy in the Victorian novel (in which pregnancy is treated modestly as a rule and only rarely as an embodied experience) to advocate for "somatic reading," a practice attuned to impressions of the body on the page and in our own messy lived experiences.
Examining works by Emily Brontë, Charlotte Mary Yonge, Anthony Trollope, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy and others, Woods considers instances of pregnancy that are tied to representations of immodesty, poverty, and medical diagnosis. These representations, Woods argues, should be understood in the arc of Anglo-American modernity and its aftershocks, connecting backward to early modern witch trials and forward to the criminalization of women for pregnancy outcomes in twenty-first-century America. Ultimately, she makes the case that by clearing space for the personal and anecdotal in scholarship, somatic reading helps us analyze with uncertainty rather than against it and allows for richer and more relevant textual interpretation.
Author: Livia Arndal Woods
Publisher: Ohio State University Press
Published: 10/06/2023
Pages: 194
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.99lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.56d
ISBN13: 9780814215531
ISBN10: 081421553X
BISAC Categories:
- Literary Criticism | Modern | 19th Century
- Literary Criticism | Subjects & Themes | Women
- Literary Criticism | English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh
About the Author
Livia Arndal Woods is Assistant Professor of English at University of Illinois at Springfield.
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