Confessional Subjects: Revelations of Gender and Power in Victorian Literature and CultureSusan Bernstein examines the gendered power relationships embedded in confessional literature of the Victorian period. Exploring this dynamic in Charlotte Bronta's Villette, Mary Elizabeth Braddon's Lady Audley's Secret, George Eliot's Daniel Deronda, and Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles, she argues that although women's disclosures to male confessors repeatedly depict wrongdoing committed against them, they themselves are viewed as the transgressors. Bernstein emphasizes the secularization of confession, but she also places these narratives within the context of the anti-Catholic tract literature of the time. Based on cultural criticism, poststructuralism, and feminist theory, Bernstein's analysis constitutes a reassessment of Freud's and Foucault's theories of confession. In addition, her study of the anti-Catholic propaganda of the mid-nineteenth century and its portrayal of confession provides historical background to the meaning of domestic confessions in the literature of the second half of the century. Originally published in 1997. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value. |
Contents
| 1 | |
CHAPTER 1 Theorizing Confession Gendering Confession | 15 |
AntiCatholic Rhetoric and Villette | 41 |
Figures of Female Degeneracy and Lady Audleys Secret | 73 |
Paternal Metaphors of Confession in Daniel Deronda | 105 |
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Common terms and phrases
anti-Catholic Audley authority Awful Disclosures body BONDAGE OF GENDER BONDS AND BONDAGE Braddon Brontë Catholicism chapter Charlotte Brontë confession scene confessional subjects d'Urbervilles Daniel Deronda dead face domestic domination edited Eliot England English father confessor female femininity Feminism feminist fession figure Foucault Freud GENDER AND RACE George Eliot Grandcourt Gwendolen's Hardy Hardy's heroine HISTORIES AND FICTIONS husband Ibid identity ideological imperialism insanity Jewish Jews Lacan Lady Audley's confession Lady Audley's Secret Leonora London Labour Lucy Lucy's male Maria Monk marriage masculine material Mayhew Mirah moral murder narrative NARROW BOUNDARY LINE NOTES TO PAGES novel paternal law paternal metaphor patriarchal Père Silas political position power relations priest prostitution Protestant psychoanalysis rape reading religious representations repression resistance rhetorical Roman Catholic church Rome sensation sexual violence signifies social story Tess Tess's confession testimony textual THEORIZING CONFESSION theory tion transgression tropes truth UN-INTACT University Press Victorian culture Villette violation woman women