2009 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Medical Context and Gender Issues in Eighteenth-Century British Novels, Focusing Jane Austen
| Project/Area Number |
19520237
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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 |
ヨーロッパ語系文学
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| Research Institution | Chukyo University (2008-2009)
Yamaguchi University (2007) |
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Principal Investigator |
TAKEI Akiko Chukyo University, 国際教養学部, 教授 (00403634)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2007 – 2009
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| Keywords | 18世紀イギリス / 医学史 / ジェンダー |
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| Research Abstract |
The concept of sensibility was a popular theme of mid-eighteenth-century and early-nineteenth-century British novels. I demonstrated that the popularization of sensibility was largely due to the development of neurology and the spread of medical knowledge among well-educated lay public. As the concept of sensibility was accepted, women's physical frailty and lack of decision-making ability were the signs of womanly sensibility and delicacy. Women dared to feign to be ill to accommodate to what was deemed model women. As a result, hysteria, anorexia nervosa, and other ailments were regarded as symptoms peculiar to delicate women. These are verified based upon medical texts published from the mid-eighteenth to early-nineteenth centuries.
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