Female Performers in British and American Fiction

The Female Performer With A Public Voice Constitutes A Remarkably Vibrant Theme In British And American Narratives Of The Long Nineteenth Century. The Tension Between Fictional Female Performers And Other Textual Voices Can Be Seen To Refigure The Cultural Debate Over The 'voice' Of Women In Aesthetically Complex Ways. By Focusing On Singers, Actresses, Preachers And Speakers, This Book Traces And Explores An Important Tradition Of Feminine Articulation. Drawing On Critical Approaches In Literary Studies, Gender Studies And Philosophy, The Book Conceptualizes Voice For The Discussion Of Narrative Texts. Examining Voice Both As A Thematic Concern And As An Aesthetic Effect, The Individual Chapters Analyse How The Actual Articulation By Female Performers Correlates With Their Cultural Visibility And Agency. What This Study Foregrounds Is How Women Characters Succeed In Making Themselves Heard Even If Their Voices Are Silenced In The End. 1.1 Postmodern Recyclings: Salman Rushdie's The Ground Beneath Her Feet (1999) And Angela Carter's Wise Chiidren (1991) P. 2 -- 1.2 Performer Voices In The Long Nineteenth Century P. 19 -- 2 Corinne And Her Aftereffects On The British Stage P. 49 -- 2.1 Triumph And Apotheosis Of The Romantic Genius Voice: Germaine De Staël's Corinne, Or Italy (1807) P. 65 -- 2.2 The Professional Victorian Actress: Geraldine Jewsbury's The Half Sisters (1848) P. 75 -- 3 Visionary Preaching In Britain And America P. 93 -- 3.1 Self-authorization Through The Divine Word: George Eliot's Adam Bede (1859) P. 103 -- 3.2 The Divine Self: Margaret Fuller's Woman In The Nineteenth Century (1845) P. 122 -- 4 American Political Speakers P. 151 -- 4.1 Haunted By The Perpetual Performer: Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Blithedate Romance (1852) P. 159 -- 4.2 Let Her Overflow: Henry James's The Bostonians (1886) P. 180 -- 5 Acting Anxieties P. 203 -- 5.1 Singing In An Allegorical Voice: George Meredith's Sandra Belloni (1864) And Vittoria (1867) P. 204 -- 5.2 Acknowledging The Monstrous Performer: George Eliot's Daniel Deronda (1876) P. 216 -- 6 Fin-de-siècle Ventriloquism And Modernist Self-authorship P. 236 -- 6.1 The Ventriloquized Voice: George Du Maurier's Trilby (1894) P. 237 -- 6.2 A Strange Sound: Isak Dinesen's The Dreamers (1934) P. 250. Barbara Straumann. Monographic Series, Supplementing A Journal. Based On Author's Habilitation - Universität, Zürich. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.