Aristocratic women and the literary nation, 1832-1867

Muireann Ó'Cinnéide

"Aristocratic Women and the Literary Nation, 7832-7867 offers a literary complement to recent historians' emphasis upon the cultural visibility and significance of the British aristocracy during the Victorian period. Aristocratic women benefited from a leisured model of socialised dilettante interaction that allowed them both to maintain and to market their high social status through their writing, but this model could prove a liability in attempts at serious social and/or intellectual engagement. Instead, these women became targets for critiques aimed at defining certain forms of individual and national identity, even as they themselves adapted to changing value schemes. Aristocratic women's writing therefore offers an important literary and cultural trope through which to consider gendered models of influence, elite identities, the nature of politics, private and public spheres,...

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