The Social Imagination of the Romantic Wife in Literature

The Social Imagination of the Romantic Wife provides biographical information as it relates to the literary works of four selected individuals on their social and professional roles as writers.

The emergence of social change in the daily lives of English society appeared most noticeably through the Romantic-era response of human emotions to a period of reason that has defined the era of Enlightenment, scientifically and philosophically. Remarkably, the dramatic political shift that occurred in 1789 from a French monarchy to a constitutional democracy foreshadowed social changes to the family unit that were more slowly evolving throughout England during the eighteenth century. An intellectual movement to educate all members of society strengthened efforts to loosen ecclesiastical control, allowing more secular definitions of social roles to emerge. The nature of marriage during this period in England is central to understanding how the marriage covenant became a widely accepted civil contract. Examining the sentiments of passion and virtue, the dynamics of traditional marriage emerge through newly established perspectives. The role of the wife as a Romantic-era concept tells the story of two women through their married lives and literary identities. The social imagination provides a new perspective on domestic concerns to illuminate a feminine aspect of the literary market through an understanding of the ordinary wife among female writers. Moreover, a specific focus on marriage, virtue, and friendship as seen through two relationships examines individuals who define both a traditional and a non-conforming approach to their domestic lives. Two husbands who were political and religious activists with wives who were atypical domestics were chosen to exemplify the effects of social change on their particular lives and marital roles in an expanding literary world.

Autorentext

Linda L. Reesman is a professor of English at Queensborough Community College, City University of New York. She also teaches as an adjunct associate professor at Hofstra University. Her articles appear in the Coleridge Bulletin, most recently in 2018. Her reviews appear in the Eighteenth-Century Current Bibliography (ECCB) and other publications. Her current essay on Coleridge appears in the 2021 edition of 1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era.

Klappentext

The Social Imagination of the Romantic Wife provides biographical information as it relates to the literary works of four selected individuals on their social and professional roles as writers.

Inhalt

Introduction

Chapter One. Marriage, Passion, and Justice in English Society

Chapter Two. Reason and Passion in the Education of Virtue

Chapter Three. Portrait of an Intellectual Wife: Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin

Chapter Four. Portrait of a Lake Poet's Wife: Sara Fricker Coleridge

Chapter Five. Idyllic Marriage, Motherhood, and Literary Genius

Chapter Six. Circle of Friends and Family

Chapter Seven. National and Domestic Identities

Chapter Eight. Marriage Law and the Rights of Woman: Sacred to Secular

Conclusion: 'Love in Fairy-land': Sara Coleridge Coleridge and Mary Godwin Shelley