{"product_id":"public-and-private-patricia-mckee-9780816629350","title":"Public and Private: Gender, Class, and the British Novel (1764-1878)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublic and Private \u003c\/i\u003ewas first published in 1997. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis groundbreaking work examines the emergent and fluctuating relationship between the public and private social spheres of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. By assessing novels such as Mary Shelley's \u003ci\u003eFrankenstein\u003c\/i\u003e and Jane Austen's \u003ci\u003eEmma\u003c\/i\u003e through the lens of the social theories of J?gen Habermas and Michel Foucault, Patricia McKee presents a fresh and highly original contribution to literary studies.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMcKee explores the themes of production and consumption as they relate to gender and class throughout the works of many of the most influential novels of the age including Tobias Smollett's \u003ci\u003eHumphry Clinker\u003c\/i\u003e, Horace Walpole's \u003ci\u003eThe Castle of Otranto\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eEmma\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eFrankenstein\u003c\/i\u003e, Anthony Trollope's \u003ci\u003eBarchester Towers\u003c\/i\u003e, Charles Dickens's \u003ci\u003eLittle Dorrit\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Old Curiosity Shop\u003c\/i\u003e, Mrs. Henry Wood's \u003ci\u003eEast Lynne\u003c\/i\u003e, and Thomas Hardy's \u003ci\u003eThe Return of the Native\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMcKee analyzes portrayals of a society in which abstract idealism belonged to knowledgeable, productive men and the realm of ignorance was left to emotional, consuming women and the uneducated. She traces the various ways British literature of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries worked to reform this social experience. Topics include Dickens's attack on the bureaucratic use of knowledge to maintain the status quo; the function of antiprogressive depictions of knowledge in Trollope, Shelley, and Hardy; and Austen's characterization of the protagonist Emma as an exception in a society that denied women's productive use of knowledge.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOffering a sharp challenge to theorists who have charted a linear division of public and private experience, McKee highlights the unexpected configurations of the emergence of the public and private spheres and the effect of knowledge distribution across class and gender lines.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePatricia McKee is professor of English at Dartmouth College. She is the author of \u003ci\u003eHeroic Commitment in Richardson, Eliot, and James\u003c\/i\u003e (1986).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Patricia McKee\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0816629358\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780816629350\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Minnesota Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/01\/1997\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 256\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.84lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.96h x 5.88w x 0.55d","brand":"Patricia McKee","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":43926482682111,"sku":"9780816629350","price":50.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/products\/img_cdbb9c0d-17d5-4ae8-9824-fd579183aea9.jpg?v=1681083318","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/public-and-private-patricia-mckee-9780816629350","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}