The Public Sphere and Women's Economic Ideas: Constructing a Model of Sociological Research in Women's Literature of Modern Britain

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26580050
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Literature in English
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: OISHI Kazuyoshi 東京大学, 大学院総合文化研究科, 准教授 (50348380)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: イギリス文学 / 経済思想 / フィランソロピー / 慈善 / 消費文化 / 女性 / オイコノミー / 奴隷貿易廃止運動

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This project is a pilot research on the historical significance of economic thought to the philanthropic activities conducted by women in early-nineteenth-century England and how it is represented in the literature of the same period. Heavily involved in the Abolitionist movement at the beginning of the century, women initiated the boycott of sugar consumption, while eagerly purchasing Wedgwood cameos as a sign of their politico-economical stance against the slave trade. Women’s keen sensitivity to economy reflects itself in the contemporary Abolitionist literature. The research from the summer of the second year centred around Elizabeth Gaskell and Harriet Martineau, whose writings redressed the contemporary male Unitarians’ idea of free trade, emphasising mutual interdependence of the employer and labourers and expanding women’s economic activities into the public sphere, where women sought to regulate the balance of spending and securing income in philanthropic activities.

Free Research Field

イギリス文学