1999 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Gender in the Eighteenth-century English Literature ― Femininity and Masculinity in London Urban Culture ―
| Project/Area Number |
09610499
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
英語・英米文学
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| Research Institution | Tsuruga Junior College |
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Principal Investigator |
GOHEI Hisae Tsuruga Junior College, the department of Japanese History, Associate Professor, 日本史学科, 助教授 (90235002)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1997 – 1999
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| Keywords | 18th-Century England / London / urban culture / femininity / masculinity / periodicals / conduct books |
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| Research Abstract |
Gender is a political as well as a social and cultural category ; the dualism of defining men and women as active/passive, rational/emotional, formed/unformed is indeed nothing but an ideology. Each society has each definition of gender, consequently the same is true of masculinity (masculine character) and femininity (feminine character). It is generally thought that in early eighteenth century England, on the eve of the so-called Industrial Revolution, women were remarkably oppressed based on the gender distinction ― governing/governed. On the contrary, did not some women question their allotted role? If some did, in what way did they struggle against their disadvantages and speak up for themselves? This study started with an examination of such women through a variety of sources. The purpose of this study is to clarify gender in the eighteenth century as represented in such source materials as conduct books, periodicals, and novels.
Part I of this report begins by showing that the urban culture created by the bourgeois divided citizens into the upper class, which is clean and polite, and the lower one, which is unclean and vulgar. In addition, it manifests its establishment of the male-dominant culture by placing women in the lower class. I, however, show through periodicals that while the upper civilized culture controlled by men was flourishing with coffee houses as the center, women's participation in the new financial events such as speculative investment as seen in "The South Sea Bubble" and conspicuous consumption, brought them a role in economic and commercial activities. In a word, women caged in the private sphere managed to have the opportunity for financial improvement or autonomy.
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