Gender and literary geography /

Our analysis of over 20,000 books published in Britain between 1800 and 2009 compares the geographic attention of fiction authored by women and by men; of books that focus on women and men as characters; and of works published in different eras. We find that, while there were only modest differences...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Evans, Elizabeth F. (Author), Wilkens, Matthew, 1974- (Author)
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2025.
Series:Cambridge elements. Elements in digital literary studies.
Subjects:
Description
Summary:Our analysis of over 20,000 books published in Britain between 1800 and 2009 compares the geographic attention of fiction authored by women and by men; of books that focus on women and men as characters; and of works published in different eras. We find that, while there were only modest differences in geographic attention in books by men and women authors, there were dramatic geographic differences in books with highly gendered character space. Counter to expectation, the geographic differences between differently gendered characters were remarkably stable across these centuries. We also examine and complicate the power attributed to separate-sphere ideology. And we demonstrate a surprising reversal of critical expectation: in fiction, broadly natural spaces were more strongly associated with men, while urban spaces were more aligned with women. As it uncovers spatial patterns in literary history, this study casts new light on well-known texts and reimagines literature's broader engagement with gender and geography.
Physical Description:89 pages : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 24 cm.
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN:1009014153
9781009014151
9781009571661
1009571664