Desire and Confinement: the Body as Sequestered Object in Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded
Desire and Confinement: the Body as Sequestered Object in Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded
Author(s): Mihaela CuleaSubject(s): Literary Texts
Published by: Editura Alma Mater
Keywords: body; virtue; object; confinement; abuse; bodily fragmentation; distance; spatial positioning
Summary/Abstract: In Samuel Richardson’s novel, the feminine body is treated as an object deprived of the liberty to choose for and act by itself. This has important consequences not only regarding the fictional development of the plot, but also related to the conflicting spatial relationships reflecting the eighteenth-century roles of socio-cultural domination and repression. Our paper highlights the discourse of confinement supported by the image of the body as an object of obsessive desire and oppression, as well as by the image of space as a psychological state.
Journal: Cultural Perspectives - Journal for Literary and British Cultural Studies in Romania
- Issue Year: 2006
- Issue No: 11
- Page Range: 87-104
- Page Count: 18
- Language: English
- Content File-PDF