During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the debate over education is centered on women's bodies and receives significant discussion in works by women. In this dissertation, I discuss five domestic novels written by women that make education their main topic and, despite political and personal differences, show a unified interest in asserting the importance of improved education for women and a desire to open up the roles available to women in education and educational reform. Each novel depicts the education of the female protagonist and shows her also as an educator of those around her. In doing so, all five of these women contributed to the educational discourse of the time, entering into the discussion on the different educational ideas of Jean Jacques Rousseau and John Locke while also revising Mary Wollstonecraft's polemical theories on women's education as expressed in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. I argue that each of these novelists show the importance of improved educations for women, while also opening a more public role for women in educational practices. The five novels I discuss in this project are Belinda by Maria Edgeworth, Adeline Mowbray by Amelia Opie, The Cottagers of Glenburnie by Elizabeth Hamilton, Discipline by Mary Brunton, and Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. These five novels were written by women of various backgrounds and educations and were all published after Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication and after the backlash against her and other radical thinkers of the 1790s. I explore how these novels deal with issues discussed in Vindication, including female subjectivity, marriage and women's role within the home and in society, focusing particularly on female education. These novels were written and published within a few years of each other and were all well-received at the time of publication. All five of these novels have generally been considered conservative novels because they appear to uphold the status quo through appropriate marriages or the death of the character who has stepped out of the normative bounds of society, but a careful reading shows more reformist tendencies. Each of these novels has moments of progressive thought that seem to subvert the main moral thrust of the novel and force the reader to question the conservative categorization. These novelists test and extend the domestic boundaries, clearing more space for women both inside and outside of the home. In most of the novels I discuss in the following chapters, the protagonist and main educator is a woman entering into society while being educated and educating others. She does not yet have a home of her own from which to perform her domestic educational role. However, each protagonist has a particular power in her situation as a single woman and her choices surrounding her marriage and future. Each of these characters is thus operating in a space between the domestic and public spheres; her role as moral guide and educator grows out of a domestic circle but enters into the larger social world. Each is engaged in educational activities outside of her own home, showing the influence women can have outside of the domestic sphere. These female characters also receive an important part of their own educations by being part of the world and engaging in society at large. The movement of these women within society further politicizes women's roles in educational practices; the portrayals of these protagonists show the need for better education for women and suggest that women can and should have more public roles both in and through education. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2015. / January 22, 2015. / Austen, Jane, Brunton, Mary, Edgeworth, Maria, Hamilton, Elizabeth, Opie, Amelia Alderson, Wollstonecraft, Mary / Includes bibliographical references. / Eric Walker, Professor Directing Dissertation; Timothy Hoekman, University Representative; Helen Burke, Committee Member; Candace Ward, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_252926 |
| Contributors | Brandeberry, Sarah Michelle (authoraut), Walker, Eric C. (professor directing dissertation), Hoekman, Timothy (university representative), Burke, Helen M. (committee member), Ward, Candace (committee member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Arts and Sciences (degree granting college), Department of English (degree granting department) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource (236 pages), computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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