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    Pathology and Performance: The Female Body in the Romantic Era

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    Author
    Ross, Safari
    Issue Date
    2018
    Keywords
    Feminism
    Keats
    Madness
    Medicine
    Nineteenth Century Literature
    Romanticism
    Advisor
    Hogle, Jerrold
    
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Publisher
    The University of Arizona.
    Rights
    Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.
    Abstract
    In my dissertation, “Pathology and Performance: The Female Body in the Romantic Era,” I examine the cultural practice of medical authorities pathologizing the female body in England in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. I specifically focus on depictions of madness, depression, and hyper-femininity in representative texts that demonstrate the influence of medical discourse on authors of the Romantic Era. Borrowing Mary Poovey’s concept of the “proper lady,” I argue that women during this time were categorized as pathological if they deviated in any way from a proscriptive definition of “natural” womanhood, which itself was normalized through social conditioning rather than biological fact. Despite this larger practice of pathologizing female bodies as inherently sick, I have found moments of resistance and critique. The personal correspondence and biographical depictions of Mary Lamb demonstrate Lamb’s ability to manipulate characterizations of madness in her own favor, effecting her mastery of language despite her pathology. The tragic consequences of rigid gender roles in Joanna Baillie’s Count Basil illuminate the absurdity of hyperfeminine “romantic” behavior and the contagious threat of the “weak” female body. Matthew Lewis’s description of “sane” physical gesture in The Captive’s dramaturgy reveals the failure of feminine performance in a pathologized setting and the apathetic complicity of his audience. The gothic hauntings and thematic fragmentation in John Keats’s Isabella signal the violence of patriarchal authority on the female body and mind. Together, these works indicate the literary, theatrical, and cultural tensions established by the pattern of Romantic female pathology.
    Type
    text
    Electronic Dissertation
    Degree Name
    Ph.D.
    Degree Level
    doctoral
    Degree Program
    Graduate College
    English
    Degree Grantor
    University of Arizona
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    Dissertations

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