Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8
Review of Literature: General Sources--Part 2
In preparing for this prospectus, I have reviewed many sources that I believe may be helpful. Some of these sources deal with Victorian literature in general, others with Hardy in general, and several with specific novels. Woman and the Demon: The Life of a Victorian Myth, written by Nina Auerbach, offers insights into the lives of Victorian females that seem especially appropriate for characters like Sue and Bathsheba. According to Auerbach, women have the power to transform and create, and they are at their most powerful when they seem to be at their most vulnerable, with a “self-transforming power surging beneath apparent victimization” (34). Women who are outcasts (spinsters and prostitutes in this case) are especially powerful and dangerous to the status quo. Sue and Bathsheba may not be spinsters or prostitutes, but I do believe they are outcasts of another sort, so Auerbach’s arguments will be useful.
A good source on Hardy in general is Rosemarie Morgan’s Women and Sexuality in the Novels of Thomas Hardy. Morgan wants readers to understand that Hardy was a subversive writer trying to portray women as strong, sexual, moral, and appealing. She works to disprove the notion that Hardy’s women are passive victims, which is something I also hope to disprove. Although both Auerbach and Morgan present many arguments I can use in my analysis of the female characters, the men are not covered in depth.