Clarissa's Ciphers: Meaning and Disruption in Richardson's Clarissa

Terry Castle

Published by Cornell University Press 2016

Clarissa's Ciphers

Meaning and Disruption in Richardson's Clarissa

Terry Castle
Funded by: National Endowment for the Humanities Open Book Program

https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501706943

Overview
Contents

About this book

As Samuel Richardson's 'exemplar to her sex,’ Clarissa in the eponymous novel published in 1748 is the paradigmatic female victim. In Clarissa’s Ciphers, Terry Castle delineates the ways in which, in a world where only voice carries authority, Clarissa is repeatedly silenced, both metaphorically and literally. A victim of rape, she is first a victim of hermeneutic abuse. Drawing on feminist criticism and hermeneutic theory, Castle examines the question of authority in the novel. By tracing the patterns of abuse and exploitation that occur when meanings are arbitrarily and violently imposed, she explores the sexual politics of reading.

Author / Editor information

Terry Castle is Walter A. Haas Professor in the Humanities at Stanford University. She is the author of many books, including The Apparitional Lesbian: Female Homosexuality and Modern Culture, Boss Ladies, Watch Out! Essays on Women, Sex, and Writing, and The Professor: A Sentimental Education.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	1
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	7
Acknowledgments Open Access Download PDF	11
Introduction Open Access Download PDF	15
1 . Clarissa by Halves Open Access Download PDF	32
2. Discovering Reading Open Access Download PDF	38
3. Reading the Letter, Reading the World Open Access Download PDF	47
4. Interrupting "Miss Clary" Open Access Download PDF	57
5. Denatured Signs Open Access Download PDF	81
6. The Voyage Out Open Access Download PDF	108
7. The Death of the Author: Clarissa's Coffin Open Access Download PDF	136
8. The Death of the Author: Richardson and the Reader Open Access Download PDF	148
9. Epilogue: The Reader Lives Open Access Download PDF	181
Bibliographic Postscript Open Access Download PDF	189
Index Open Access Download PDF	197

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 204
Keywords: sexuality; gender; feminism; queer intellectual; Clarissa; Samuel Richardson; feminist criticism; hermeneutic theory; sexual politics of reading

eBook

Published: November 1, 2016
ISBN: 9781501706943