Harriet Martineau responds to the strong revival of interest in her life and writing, exploring Martineau’s controversial views through her innovative use of popular cultural forms--journalism, travel writing, didactic fiction, novels, translation, autobiography and history. This is the first collection of essays to revisit and reassess Martineau’s leading place in Victorian culture and in the development of nineteenth-century liberalism. Distinguished contributors--including Isobel Armstrong, Lauren Goodlad, Catherine Hall, Deborah Logan and Linda Peterson--offer critical analyses of her trailblazing career as a professional "oman of letters."
The essays collected here move from personal to global concerns in Martineau’s oeuvre. The opening essays center on her bold self-fashioning as a writer, while the second section focuses on the domestic complexities of laissez-faire liberalism in her economic and social vision. Finally, the volume analyzes her provocative writings on race, Empire and history--from Atlantic slavery to the Indian Mutiny--demonstrating the international breadth and impact of a remarkable career.
| List Of Illustrations |
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vii | |
| Notes On Contributors |
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viii | |
| Acknowledgements |
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xi | |
| Introduction |
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1 | (14) |
| Part I: Authorship And Identity |
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1 Harriet Martineau, Woman Of Letters |
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15 | (23) |
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2 Harriet Martineau's 'Intellectual Nobility': Gender, Genius And Disability |
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38 | (14) |
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3 '(Entre Nous, Please!)': Harriet Martineau's Correspondence |
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52 | (11) |
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4 Self-Presentation And Instability In Harriet Martineau's Autobiography |
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63 | (11) |
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5 'Socinian And Political-Economy Formulas': Martineau The Unitarian |
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74 | (14) |
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6 Provocative Agendas: Martineau's Translation Of Comte |
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88 | (15) |
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| Part II: Political Economy, Technology And Society |
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7 Domesticating Political Economy: Language, Gender And Economics In The Illustrations Of Political Economy |
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103 | (15) |
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8 Feminism, Speculation And Agency In Harriet Martineau's Illustrations Of Political Economy |
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118 | (20) |
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9 'Secret Organisation Of Trades': Harriet Martineau And 'Free Labour' In Victorian Britain |
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138 | (13) |
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10 Spending Sprees And Machine Accidents: Martineau And The Mystery Of Improvidence |
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151 | (14) |
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| Part III: Empire, Race, Nation |
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11 'With The Practised Eye Of A Deaf Person': Martineau's Travel Writing And The Construction Of The Disabled Traveller |
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165 | (15) |
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12 Slavery, Race, History: Harriet Martineau's Ethnographic Imagination |
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180 | (17) |
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13 Imperial Woman: Harriet Martineau, Geopolitics And The Romance Of Improvement |
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197 | (17) |
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14 Harriet Martineau And India: On Not Writing Accusatory History |
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214 | (17) |
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15 Writing A History, Writing A Nation: Harriet Martineau's History Of The Peace |
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231 | (23) |
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| Recommended reading |
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254 | (3) |
| Index |
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257 | |
Ella Dzelzainis is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer in Nineteenth-Century Literature at the University of Newcastle. Cora Kaplan is Honorary Professor in the School of English and Drama at Queen Mary, University of London and Emeritus Professor of English at Southampton University -- .
