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Affective Transmission and the Invention of Characters in the Victorian Bildungsroman

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 November 2020

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Abstract

“Affective Transmission and the Invention of Characters in the Victorian Bildungsroman” reconsiders several novels about young women as they make their way into a larger social world. Rather than achieving self-discipline, as has frequently been argued, heroines such as Lucy Snowe, Maggie Tulliver, and Margaret Hale tend to be overpowered by interpersonal emotions. They distance themselves from these affects by attributing them to fictitious characters. The gendered variation of the larger tradition this article sketches out calls into question the premise of the bildungsroman as a whole, raising the possibility that the adjustment of the self to external realities is never as complete as it seems.

Type
Research Article
Information
Victorian Literature and Culture , Volume 48 , Issue 4 , Winter 2020 , pp. 665 - 691
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2020

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