Expulsion and the Nineteenth-Century Novel The Scapegoat in English Realist Fiction

by Heyns, Michiel

• ISBN13: 9780198182702
• ISBN10: 0198182708
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1995-02-16
• Publisher: Clarendon Press

Summary

This lively and original book examines the notion that the realist novel reinforces existing social structures through its techniques of representation. Michiel Heyns depicts the nineteenth-century literary scapegoat--the ostensible victim of the expulsive pressure of plot--as begetter of an alternative vision, questioning the values apparently upheld by the novel as a whole. Expulsion and the Nineteenth-Century Novel investigates this idea through close and illuminating readings of five realist novels of the nineteenth century: Mansfield Park , Our Mutual Friend , Daniel Deronda , Lord Jim , and The Golden Bowl . This book places the realist novel in the center of current debates, while yet respecting the power of literature to anticipate the insights of its critics.

Author Biography

Michiel Heyns is Professor and Chair of the Department of English at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations and Conventions
Introduction: Complicity, Community, and Critical Method	p. 1
A Divided Community: Fanny Price and the Readers of Mansfield Park	p. 50
'Oh, 'tis love, 'tis love . . .': Privileged Partnership in Dickens	p. 90
A Peculiar Compassion: George Eliot and Gwendolen Harleth	p. 136
The Solidarity of the Craft and the Fellowship of Illusion: Lord Jim	p. 183
A Community of Interest: The Golden Bowl	p. 227
Conclusion: To Be Continued...	p. 269
Bibliography	p. 275
Index	p. 285
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