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The Resource Invalid women : figuring feminine illness in American fiction and culture, 1840-1940, Diane Price Herndl

Invalid women : figuring feminine illness in American fiction and culture, 1840-1940, Diane Price Herndl

Creator
Summary
In this imaginative work of cultural and literary history, Diane Price Herndl examines the tensions found in literary representations of feminine illness. Using medical texts, art, and advertising as well as major works of fiction, Price Herndl argues that such representations were not "natural" but were instead ideologically motivated. While invalid women in American fiction sometimes upheld and sometimes challenged dominant social and medical practice, Price Herndl contends that the discourse of feminine illness was a battleground for powerful forces that sought to define women's role in society even after feminism's emergence. The figure of the invalid female must, she says, be understood as a highly politicized figure. Price Herndl looks first at mid-nineteenth-century medical theories that defined women as fundamentally "invalid." She then turns to important literary texts, including works by Harriet Beecher Stowe, E.D.E.N. Southworth, Laura Curtis Bullard, Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, to show that male and female authors represented invalid women differently. Price Herndl contends that the figure of the ill woman conveniently resolved problems of the changing culture for nineteenth-century authors of both sexes. Price Herndl then traces the image of invalid women from the turn of the century to World War II, using texts by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Edith Wharton, Ellen Glasgow, Henry James, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Tillie Olsen, as well as the film Dark Victory. Despite dramatic changes in both medical practices and women's place in society, fictional representations remained strikingly stable and politically conservative, Price Herndl argues, even when the author's intent was otherwise
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
1 online resource (xv, 270 pages)
Contents
  • Medical Discourse, Cultural Definition
  • Ch. 2.
  • The Threat of Invalidism: Responsibility and Reward in Domestic and Feminist Fiction.
  • Fiction Figuring Women.
  • Invalid Mothers.
  • The Feminist Invalid
  • Ch. 3.
  • (Super) "Natural" Invalidism: Male Writers and the Mind/Body Problem.
  • The Domestic and the Romantic (Super)Natural.
  • The Mind/Body Problem.
  • Reading Illness.
  • Making Natural Art of Women.
  • The Natural Pharmakon in the Garden.
  • A Return to the Garden: The Healthy Invalid.
  • The "Feverish Poet"
  • Ch. 4.
  • The Writing Cure: Women Writers and the Art of Illness.
  • Mental Healing at the Turn of the Century.
  • The Writing Cure.
  • The Art of Illness.
  • Happy Endings
  • Invalid Ideology.
  • Ch. 5.
  • Fighting (with) Illness: Success and the Invalid Woman.
  • Success and the Invalid Woman.
  • Success, Class, and Health.
  • Failing Health.
  • Invalid Men and the Ideology of "Separate Spheres"
  • Ch. 6.
  • Economics of Illness: Working the Invalid Woman.
  • Willpower.
  • Clinical Ethics and the Invalid Economy.
  • Culture, Dialogue, and Discourse.
  • Conclusion: Invalidism and the Female Body Politic.
  • The Political Representation of Feminine Illness
  • Invalid Women
  • Ch. 1.
  • Defining the Feminine/Defining the Invalid: Women and Medicine in the Mid-Nineteenth Century.
  • Women's Health in the Mid-Nineteenth Century.
  • Physicians and Women.
Isbn
9780585025742
Instance
Label
Invalid women : figuring feminine illness in American fiction and culture, 1840-1940
Title
Invalid women
Title remainder
figuring feminine illness in American fiction and culture, 1840-1940
Statement of responsibility
Diane Price Herndl
Creator
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
Summary
In this imaginative work of cultural and literary history, Diane Price Herndl examines the tensions found in literary representations of feminine illness. Using medical texts, art, and advertising as well as major works of fiction, Price Herndl argues that such representations were not "natural" but were instead ideologically motivated. While invalid women in American fiction sometimes upheld and sometimes challenged dominant social and medical practice, Price Herndl contends that the discourse of feminine illness was a battleground for powerful forces that sought to define women's role in society even after feminism's emergence. The figure of the invalid female must, she says, be understood as a highly politicized figure. Price Herndl looks first at mid-nineteenth-century medical theories that defined women as fundamentally "invalid." She then turns to important literary texts, including works by Harriet Beecher Stowe, E.D.E.N. Southworth, Laura Curtis Bullard, Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, to show that male and female authors represented invalid women differently. Price Herndl contends that the figure of the ill woman conveniently resolved problems of the changing culture for nineteenth-century authors of both sexes. Price Herndl then traces the image of invalid women from the turn of the century to World War II, using texts by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Edith Wharton, Ellen Glasgow, Henry James, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Tillie Olsen, as well as the film Dark Victory. Despite dramatic changes in both medical practices and women's place in society, fictional representations remained strikingly stable and politically conservative, Price Herndl argues, even when the author's intent was otherwise
Action
digitized
Cataloging source
N$T
http://library.link/vocab/creatorDate
1959-
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Price Herndl, Diane
Dewey number
813.009/352042
Government publication
government publication of a state province territory dependency etc
Illustrations
illustrations
Index
index present
LC call number
PS374.W6
LC item number
P74 1993eb
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
  • dictionaries
  • bibliography
NLM call number
  • 1993 A-569
  • WZ 330
NLM item number
P945i 1993
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • American fiction
  • Women and literature
  • Women and literature
  • American fiction
  • Women with disabilities
  • Women with disabilities in literature
  • Invalids in literature
  • Diseases in literature
  • Sick in literature
  • Medicine in Literature
  • Literature, Modern
  • Women
  • Women's Health
  • Roman américain
  • Femmes et littérature
  • Femmes et littérature
  • Roman américain
  • Handicapées
  • Handicapées dans la littérature
  • Invalides dans la littérature
  • Maladies dans la littérature
  • Malades dans la littérature
  • LITERARY CRITICISM
  • American fiction
  • Diseases in literature
  • Invalids in literature
  • Sick in literature
  • Women and literature
  • Women with disabilities
  • Women with disabilities in literature
  • United States
Label
Invalid women : figuring feminine illness in American fiction and culture, 1840-1940, Diane Price Herndl
Instantiates
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-261) and index
Carrier category
online resource
Carrier category code
  • cr
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Color
multicolored
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
  • Medical Discourse, Cultural Definition
  • Ch. 2.
  • The Threat of Invalidism: Responsibility and Reward in Domestic and Feminist Fiction.
  • Fiction Figuring Women.
  • Invalid Mothers.
  • The Feminist Invalid
  • Ch. 3.
  • (Super) "Natural" Invalidism: Male Writers and the Mind/Body Problem.
  • The Domestic and the Romantic (Super)Natural.
  • The Mind/Body Problem.
  • Reading Illness.
  • Making Natural Art of Women.
  • The Natural Pharmakon in the Garden.
  • A Return to the Garden: The Healthy Invalid.
  • The "Feverish Poet"
  • Ch. 4.
  • The Writing Cure: Women Writers and the Art of Illness.
  • Mental Healing at the Turn of the Century.
  • The Writing Cure.
  • The Art of Illness.
  • Happy Endings
  • Invalid Ideology.
  • Ch. 5.
  • Fighting (with) Illness: Success and the Invalid Woman.
  • Success and the Invalid Woman.
  • Success, Class, and Health.
  • Failing Health.
  • Invalid Men and the Ideology of "Separate Spheres"
  • Ch. 6.
  • Economics of Illness: Working the Invalid Woman.
  • Willpower.
  • Clinical Ethics and the Invalid Economy.
  • Culture, Dialogue, and Discourse.
  • Conclusion: Invalidism and the Female Body Politic.
  • The Political Representation of Feminine Illness
  • Invalid Women
  • Ch. 1.
  • Defining the Feminine/Defining the Invalid: Women and Medicine in the Mid-Nineteenth Century.
  • Women's Health in the Mid-Nineteenth Century.
  • Physicians and Women.
Control code
42329175
Dimensions
unknown
Extent
1 online resource (xv, 270 pages)
Form of item
online
Isbn
9780585025742
Media category
computer
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • c
Other physical details
illustrations
Reproduction note
Electronic reproduction.
Specific material designation
remote
System control number
(OCoLC)42329175
System details
Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002.
Label
Invalid women : figuring feminine illness in American fiction and culture, 1840-1940, Diane Price Herndl
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-261) and index
Carrier category
online resource
Carrier category code
  • cr
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Color
multicolored
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
  • Medical Discourse, Cultural Definition
  • Ch. 2.
  • The Threat of Invalidism: Responsibility and Reward in Domestic and Feminist Fiction.
  • Fiction Figuring Women.
  • Invalid Mothers.
  • The Feminist Invalid
  • Ch. 3.
  • (Super) "Natural" Invalidism: Male Writers and the Mind/Body Problem.
  • The Domestic and the Romantic (Super)Natural.
  • The Mind/Body Problem.
  • Reading Illness.
  • Making Natural Art of Women.
  • The Natural Pharmakon in the Garden.
  • A Return to the Garden: The Healthy Invalid.
  • The "Feverish Poet"
  • Ch. 4.
  • The Writing Cure: Women Writers and the Art of Illness.
  • Mental Healing at the Turn of the Century.
  • The Writing Cure.
  • The Art of Illness.
  • Happy Endings
  • Invalid Ideology.
  • Ch. 5.
  • Fighting (with) Illness: Success and the Invalid Woman.
  • Success and the Invalid Woman.
  • Success, Class, and Health.
  • Failing Health.
  • Invalid Men and the Ideology of "Separate Spheres"
  • Ch. 6.
  • Economics of Illness: Working the Invalid Woman.
  • Willpower.
  • Clinical Ethics and the Invalid Economy.
  • Culture, Dialogue, and Discourse.
  • Conclusion: Invalidism and the Female Body Politic.
  • The Political Representation of Feminine Illness
  • Invalid Women
  • Ch. 1.
  • Defining the Feminine/Defining the Invalid: Women and Medicine in the Mid-Nineteenth Century.
  • Women's Health in the Mid-Nineteenth Century.
  • Physicians and Women.
Control code
42329175
Dimensions
unknown
Extent
1 online resource (xv, 270 pages)
Form of item
online
Isbn
9780585025742
Media category
computer
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • c
Other physical details
illustrations
Reproduction note
Electronic reproduction.
Specific material designation
remote
System control number
(OCoLC)42329175
System details
Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002.

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