Synopses & Reviews
In this Readers' Guide, Alison Chapman introduces and discusses the patterns of critical attention that Gaskell's work has attracted across the past hundred and fifty years. Beginning with contemporary press and critical reviews, and treatments by the Victorian and early twentieth-century literary establishment, the Guide sets out a background for the most recent and challenging reassessments of these novels, bringing the reader fully up to date on current critical approaches.
Synopsis
In this Readers' Guide, Alison Chapman introduces and discusses the patterns of critical attention that Gaskell's work has attracted across the past hundred and fifty years. Beginning with contemporary press and critical reviews, and treatments by the Victorian and early twentieth-century literary establishment, the Guide sets out a background for the most recent and challenging reassessments of these novels, bringing the reader fully up to date on current critical approaches.
Synopsis
Reader's Guides to Essential Criticism explore the key critical material relating to major works of world literature. A clear, informative narrative links the extracts and examines their context and importance. From contemporary reviews to postmodern readings, the Guides offer readers a full account of the ways in which the works have been received by academics, critics, and the public.
About the Author
ALISON CHAPMAN is a Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Glasgow
Table of Contents
Introduction: Reading (as) Conflict: Approaching Gaskell's Fiction
Telling Tales: Contemporary Reviews
A Proper Authoress: Biographical Criticism
'The Unhappy State of Things': Marxist Literary Criticism and the 'Social-Problem' Novel
Feminist Neglect and Feminist Celebration: The 1980s
Recovering Contexts: New Historicism in the 1990s
Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Index