JOURNAL ARTICLE

A Figure of Speech and a Speechless Figure: Determinations of Identity in George Sand's Indiana and Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth.

Published In: Papers on Language & Literature, 2024, v. 58, n. 3. P. 303 1 of 3
Database: Academic Search Ultimate 2 of 3
Authored By: COPELAND, TODD 3 of 3

Abstract

George Sand's Indiana and Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth share a guiding interest in the function of appearances that--considered within the context of literary realism's development--can be seen as contributing to the gradually dominating trope of exteriority in which fictional characters' identities and actions are ineluctably determined and defined by such external forces as society, language, aesthetics, and commerce. The failure of Sand's Raymon de Ramière and Wharton's Lily Bart to realize themselves as independently empowered individuals exemplifies literary realism's reassessment, closely tied to the rise of sociology as a discipline, of the longstanding, romantic tradition of a person's potential to be a selfdetermining entity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Additional Information

Source:Papers on Language & Literature. 2024/07, Vol. 58, Issue 3, p303
Document Type:Literary Criticism
Subject Area:History
Publication Date:2024
ISSN:0031-1294
Accession Number:179099533
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