Thomas Hardy, Femininity and Dissent

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Jane Thomas

   Pages 1-10

3. Hardy and ‘The Thinking World’

   • Jane Thomas

   Pages 11-26

4. The Question of ‘Woman’

   • Jane Thomas

   Pages 27-51

5. Desperate Remedies (1871): The ‘Martyrdom of Self-Conceit’

   • Jane Thomas

   Pages 52-68

6. A Pair of Blue Eyes (1873): Policing the Self

   • Jane Thomas

   Pages 69-84

7. The Hand of Ethelberta (1876): The Limits of Resistance

   • Jane Thomas

   Pages 85-95

8. A Laodicean (1881): Power and Agency

   • Jane Thomas

   Pages 96-112

9. Two on a Tower (1886): ‘The Artificial System of Things’

   • Jane Thomas

   Pages 113-130

10. The Well-Beloved (1897): Galatea’s Revenge

    • Jane Thomas

    Pages 131-146

11. Back Matter

    Pages 147-172

    PDF

Drawing on aspects of Foucauldian feminist theory Thomas Hardy, Femininity and Dissent offers original and detailed readings of six critically under-valued novels: Desperate Remedies, A Pair of Blue Eyes, The Hand of Ethelberta, A Laodicean, Two on a Tower and The Well-Beloved , demonstrating Hardy's peculiarly modern appreciation of how individuals negotiate the forces which shape their sense of self. Tracing his interest in the evolutionary debate and the woman question this book reveals a new politically engaged rather than a grimly pessimistic Hardy.

• 1871
• bibliography
• drawing
• feminism
• individual
• knowledge
• novel
• resistance
• Thomas Hardy

Thomas's analysis makes clear that Hardy's minor novels offer readers the same passionate, argumentative spirit that animates the major ones... Victorian Studies

• Department of English, The University of Hull, UK

  Jane Thomas

Jane Thomas is Lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Hull.

Policies and ethics