Proquest Dissertations

INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6” x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. Bell & Howell Information and Learning 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA UNU800-521-0600 TOWARD A PROFESSIONAL AESTHETICS: THE TRANSATLANTIC READING PRACTICES OF HARRIET BEECHER STOWE, ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS, AND GEORGE ELIOT DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Jennifer Anne Cognard-Black, M.A. ***** The Ohio State University 1999 Dissertation Committee: ^proved by Professor Susan Williams, Adviser Adviser Professor Marlene Longenecker Professor Cathy Shuman Professor Andrea Lunsford English Graduate Program UlVfl Number: 9951641 CB) UMI Microform 9951641 Copyright 2000 by Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Bell & Howell Hiformation and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346 ABSTRACT My dissertation considers an important development in nineteenth-century American literary history: the production of controversial texts by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, and George Eliot in conjunction with the rise of three American movements—professionalism, aestheticism, and the proliferation of transatlantic exchange. From roughly 1865 to 1890, the United States experienced rapid developments in professionalism that created clearly defined careers for “experts” sustained by an advanced capitalist economy. Simultaneously, this period marked an information explosion in American popular media, one that reversed what Stowe, Phelps, and Eliot held most dear by divorcing knowledge fi’om meaningful contexts, removing narrative qualities firom public discourse, and relying on “fact” as the measure o f supreme value. By examining their unpublished correspondence with one another as well as the transatlantic reception o f some of their most widely read work, I analyze how these writers remade their aesthetic aspirations against the infi>rmation-based, market-driven ethos of professional expertise. Specifically, I show how Stowe and Phelps worked to bring about a union o f art and social morality through a precise feminine aesthetic—one Stowe termed “strong weakness” and Phelps designated as “feminine strength.” In so doing, both turned to a feminine model of elite literary culture that they equated with the “Englishness” of George Eliot. In turn, this model consciously resisted the ii coimnodîfîcation of literature induced by professional discourse while simultaneously participating in the professionalization of artistic practice. To locate these intersections among professionalism, feminine aesthetics, and transatlantic reading practice, my project examines three narratives that caused critical fiiror in America and England. Regarding Stowe, I analyze Lady Byron Vindicated (1870), a nonfiction treatise that charged Lord Byron with having committed incest and that appropriated professional grammar in order to preempt negative press. For Eliot, I take up Daniel Deronda (1876), a novel that sparked American interest in the “realness” of its heroine, Gwendolen Harleth, who paradoxically functions in the book as a representative o f “false” professional artistry. And for Phelps I examine The Story o f Avis (1877), a kunstlerroman about an accomplished female painter. Avis Dobell, and a book Phelps admitted “made so many enemies” due to its perceived radicalism on the question o f women’s professional role as artists. At one level, then, my study considers a culture of correspondence across the Atlantic—at once literal in terms o f letters, fiction, and articles as well as figurative in terms of images, politics, and reception. At another, my project also contributes to a larger understanding of the roles of gender, reading, and transatlantic literary criticism in nineteenth-century America. m To the ones who gave birth to me, Anne and Roger, and the ones who helped me give birth to myselT Andrew, Katharine, and Elizabeth IV ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation has been a lengthy project, and I am grateful to the many people who, over the past three years and m different ways, helped me write it. First and foremost, I wish to thank my dissertation director, Susan Williams. In the hour after my candidacy exam, Susan and I mapped out the skeleton of what became this manuscript, and I owe to her its reliance on archival sources, its use o f a transatlantic critical lens, and its adoption of professionalism as an historical movement that deserved close attention. From that point on, Susan read and responded to every draft of every chapter. I could not have written this dissertation without her, and I cannot adequately express how much I appreciate her investment in my work. Susan was the ideal director, and I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to learn from such an intelligent, thorough, and perceptive scholar. I am similarly indebted to Marlene Longenecker and Cathy Shuman, both of whom painstakingly read drafts o f various chapters and provided me with invaluable counsel. Marlene is the reason I came to work as a graduate student at Ohio State, and the capacious knowledge she has provided me in terms of feminist literary history and nineteenth-century literatme has more than justified my choice. In turn, Cathy has been vigilant in reminding me that the world is not made up of dualisms, and her wide-ranging understanding of literary theory (particularly Marxism and Foucault) has consistently deepened and challenged my own binaried—and oftentimes staunchly New Critical— thinking. I am lucky indeed to have had the chance to work so closely with two such fine mentors. Special thanks goes to Andrea Lunsford, a woman with whom I have had so many difierent and wonderful experiences that I find it impossible to show her the gratitude she deserves. In terms of my dissertation, Andrea asked questions that no other committee member could, helping me see my arguments through a feminist rhetorical lens. As a result, my project is undoubtedly richer. But I cannot limit my thanks to Andrea’s work with this manuscript, for Andrea has taught me more than what it means to be a scholar of English. Andrea has shown me what it means to be a selfless, loving, and gracious human being, and for these lessons I owe her everything. Although Debra Moddetmog did not sit on my dissertation committee, her influence is stamped on every page of this manuscript. The discussion o f Gwendolen’s mirror identity, the reading of Susan Wannamaker as a class foil for Avis, the examination of the Alcharisi as a race mother in the text, and the understanding of gender as a complex system throughout the dissertation are all outgrowths of the work on feminism, the body, and multicultural theory I completed with Debra over a three year period. There is no professor who has taught me more about the political and social ramifications of reading literature, and every aspect of my professional work—teaching, research, and service—has been and will continue to be directly influenced by her guidance. I am additionally grateful to Steve Fink, Roger Cognard, Anne MacLeod Cognard, Andrew Cognard-Black, and Cheryl Gunness for providing me with discerning v i suggestions on various parts of this manuscript as well as on materials related to my dissertation. Without Steve’s impressive historical apprehension of nineteenth-century American literature, my father’s editorial savvy, my mother’s creative connections between texts and writers, my partner’s methodical and careful reading skills, and Cheryl’s rare ability to see the proverbial forest for the trees, this manuscript would have been much less cogent. I am grateful for many fellowships and grants that supported this research. The Ohio State University’s Graduate School gave me a Presidential Fellowship, allowing me a crucial year off from teaching in the final stages o f my dissertation writing. In addition, the Graduate School awarded me a Graduate Student Alumni Research Award to visit vital collections in Boston, New York, and Hartford. In turn, the Department of English provided me with two one-quarter fellowships so that I could pursue my archival research without needing release firom teaching; the Department o f Women’s Studies awarded me an Elizabeth Gee Grant for Research on Women that allowed me to gather important documents firom the Huntington Library in California; and Ohio State’s OfBce of International Studies gave me a generous Dissertation Research Grant to visit the British Library and University College Library in London. For providing me with matching funds, helping me with application materials, and writing me letters of support in relation to these fellowships and grants, in addition to my committee members I would specifically like to thank Cheryl Glenn, Lisa Kiser, Jim Phelan, and Elaine Showalter.

Load more