Sexualizing power in naturalism
Theodore Dreiser and Frederick Philip Grove
by Irene Gammel
How is sexuality put to work in the social network of power? Why is power so obsessively inscribed on the sexualized female body? These questions are at the heart of naturalism's preoccupation with female sexuality. Presenting a revisionary reading of such crucial German, Canadian, and American texts as Fanny Essler, Settlers of the Marsh, and Sister Carrie, Irene Gammel reveals that naturalism is frequently implicated in the very power structures it critiques.
A predominantly male genre, naturalism appropriated a disruptive female sexuality not so much to "liberate" it from the shackles of Victorian repression as to contain it within the male boundaries of naturalism. Reading European and North American naturalism through the lens of feminist and Foucauldian theories of power, Gammel argues that twentieth-century naturalism increasingly exposes the genre's internal ideological contradictions.
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Subjects
Naturalism in literature, Power (Social sciences) in literature, Criticism and interpretation, Sex in literature, Women in literature, Dreiser, theodore, 1871-1945, American fiction, history and criticism, 20th century, Critique et interprétation, Naturalisme dans la littérature, Sexualité dans la littérature, Femmes dans la littérature| Edition | Availability |
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Sexualizing power in naturalism: Theodore Dreiser and Frederick Philip Grove
1994, University of Calgary Press
in English
1895176395 9781895176391
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Includes bibliographical references (p. 241-255) and index.
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