Secondary Heroines in Nineteenth-Century British and American Novels
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A01=Jennifer Camden
American Historical Romance
Author_Jennifer Camden
Bardic Tradition
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Category=DSBF
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contested female identity in novels
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courtship narrative
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eq_biography-true-stories
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eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
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Fanny's Marriage
Fanny’s Marriage
Fergus Mac Ivor
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gender identity studies
historical
historical romance analysis
hope
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hopes
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Julia’s Letter
leslie
marriage
National Resolution
Native American Tribes
nineteenth-century literature
pequot
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plot
primary
Primary Heroines
race and class ideology
Robert Weisbuch
romance
Scott's Text
Scott’s Text
Secondary Heroine
Sir Everard
Sunny Slopes
Surface Deflation
Transatlantic Studies
war
women's literary roles
Young Man
Product details
- ISBN 9781138279131
- Weight: 350g
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 16 Nov 2016
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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Taking up works by Samuel Richardson, James Fenimore Cooper, Sir Walter Scott, and Catharine Maria Sedgwick, among others, Jennifer B. Camden examines the role of female characters who, while embodying the qualities associated with heroines, fail to achieve this status in the story. These "secondary heroines," often the friend or sister of the primary heroine, typically disappear from the action of the novel as the courtship plot progresses, only to return near the conclusion of the action with renewed demands on the reader's attention. Accounting for this persistent pattern, Camden suggests, reveals the cultural work performed by these unusual figures in the early history of the novel. Because she is often a far more vivid character than the heroine of the marriage plot, the secondary heroine inevitably engages the reader's interest in her plight. That the narrative apparently seeks to suppress her creates tension and points to the secondary heroine as a site of contested identity who represents an ideology of womanhood and nationhood at odds with the national ideals represented by the primary heroine, whom the reader is asked to embrace. In showing how the anxiety produced by these ideals is displaced onto the secondary heroine, Camden's study represents an important intervention into the ways in which early novels use character to further ideologies of race, class, sex, and gender.
Jennifer Camden is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Indianapolis, USA.
