The Daughter's Dilemma : Family Process and the Nineteenth-Century Domestic Novel

The University of Michigan Press

The Daughter's DilemmaFamily Process and the Nineteenth-Century Domestic Novel\nAuthor(s): Paula Marantz Cohen\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: The University of Michigan Press, United States\nImprint: The University of Michigan Press\nISBN-13: 9780472082322, 978-0472082322\nSynopsis\nThe Daughter's Dilemma breaks new ground in literary studies through its application of family systems theory to the analysis of nineteenth-century domestic novels. Cohen argues for structural correspondences between families and novels: as systems seeking closure, they are governed by certain analogous laws. She argues further that the father-daughter dyad is the pivotal structure by which the nuclear family and the domestic novel were able to define themselves as closed systems. The study treats novels by Samuel Richardson, Jane Austen, Emily Bront, George Eliot, and Henry James and places them in the context of the writers' individual family experiences. Drawing on recent work in literary and feminist .