The Masochistic Pleasures of Sentimental Literature

(Paperback)

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For generations, critics have noticed in nineteenth-century American women's sentimentality a streak of masochism, but their discussions of it have over-simplified its complex relationship to women's power. Marianne Noble argues that tropes of eroticized domination in sentimental literature must be recognized for what they were: a double-edged sword of both oppression and empowerment. She begins by exploring the cultural forces that came together to create this ideology of desire, particularly Protestant discourses relating suffering to love and middle-class discourses of "true womanhood." She goes on to demonstrate how sentimental literature takes advantage of the expressive power in the convergence of these two discourses to imagine women's romantic desire. Therefore, in sentimental literature, images of eroticized domination are not antithetical to female pleasure but rather can be constitutive of it. The book, however, does not simply celebrate that fact. In readings of Warner's The Wide Wide World, Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, and Dickinson's sentimental poetry, it addresses the complex benefits and costs of nineteenth-century women's literary masochism.Ultimately it shows how these authors both exploited and were shaped by this discursive practice. The Masochistic Pleasures of Sentimental Literature exemplifies new trends in "Third Wave" feminist scholarship, presenting cultural and historical research informed by clear, lucid discussions of psychoanalytic and literary theory. It demonstrates that contemporary theories of masochism--including those of Deleuze, Bataille, Kristeva, Benjamin, Bersani, Noyes, Mansfield--are more relevant and comprehensible when considered in relation to sentimental literature.

Reviews

One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2000 "This book does an admirable job of assessing the cultural and libidinal values attached to sentimental fiction and its prevalent tropology of erotic domination in 19th century writing by women."--Virginia Quarterly Review "[A] complex, nuanced volume ...Though the author abundantly documents the oppressive aspects of fantasies of masochistic desire, she also traces the kinds of power and pleasure produced in works that eroticize female attraction to pain and submission to male domination."--Choice "Noble's flexible and dazzling close reading of Stowe, Warner, and Dickinson are artful, and she usefully demonstrates that exploring the variations of individualistic psychological response is key to understanding the work of sentimental discourse."--Rebecca Wanzo, American Literature

Author Bio

Marianne Noble is Associate Professor of Literature at American University, where she teaches nineteenth-century American literature and introductory courses in literary theory and creative writing. She has published widely in numerous journals.