Stigmatized as dangerous and subversive, the sexually unscrupulous woman, be she adulterous or bigamous, capable of putting her own desire – or her own interest – before the respect of wedlock finds in the sensation novel ample space. Of these disturbing ‘daughters’ at the same time of social reality and of the creative imagination of sensation authors – and especially authoresses – this essay examines emblematic examples and characteristics, pointing out the funambolic choices and compromises of writers always on the borderline between the wish for transgression and the necessary, though sometimes only formal, adherence to the ethical (and aesthetic) codes of their time.
The "new disease": adulterous and bigamous ladies in the sensation novel
PERSICO, Gemma
2012-01-01
Abstract
Stigmatized as dangerous and subversive, the sexually unscrupulous woman, be she adulterous or bigamous, capable of putting her own desire – or her own interest – before the respect of wedlock finds in the sensation novel ample space. Of these disturbing ‘daughters’ at the same time of social reality and of the creative imagination of sensation authors – and especially authoresses – this essay examines emblematic examples and characteristics, pointing out the funambolic choices and compromises of writers always on the borderline between the wish for transgression and the necessary, though sometimes only formal, adherence to the ethical (and aesthetic) codes of their time.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
