Female physicians in American literature : abortion in 19th-century literature and culture

Author(s)

• Jessee, Margaret Jay

Bibliographic Information

Female physicians in American literature : abortion in 19th-century literature and culture

Margaret Jay Jessee

（Routledge focus on literature）（Routledge focus）

Routledge, 2022

• : hbk

Note

Summary: "Female Physicians in American Literature traces the woman physician character throughout her varying depictions in 19th-century literature, from her appearance in sensational fiction as an evil abortionist to her more well-known idyllic, feminine presence in novels of realism and regionalism. "Murderess," "hag," "She-Devil," "the instrument of the very vilest crime known in the annals of hell"-these are just a few descriptions of women abortionists in popular 19th-century sensation fiction. In novels of regionalism, however, she is often depicted as moral, feminine, and self-sacrificing. This dichotomy, Jessee argues, reveals two opposing literary approaches to registering the national fears of all that both women and abortion evoke: the terrifying threats to white, masculine, Anglo-American male supremacy"--Provided by publisher

Includes index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Female Physicians in American Literature traces the woman physician character throughout her varying depictions in 19th-century literature, from her appearance in sensational fiction as an evil abortionist to her more well-known idyllic, feminine presence in novels of realism and regionalism. "Murderess," "hag," "She-Devil," "the instrument of the very vilest crime known in the annals of hell"-these are just a few descriptions of women abortionists in popular 19th-century sensational fiction. In novels of regionalism, however, she is often depicted as moral, feminine, and self-sacrificing. This dichotomy, Jessee argues, reveals two opposing literary approaches to registering the national fears of all that both women and abortion evoke: the terrifying threats to white, masculine, Anglo-American male supremacy.

Table of Contents

Preface Introduction: The Woman Physician Character and Anglo-American Nationalism Fearing the Woman Physician as Trope Abortion and Nationalism Chapter 1: An "Atrocious Foreign Woman": White Nationalism and the Abortionist The Sensation of Madame Restell Embodying the Abortionist Chapter 2: The Corporeal Legacy of the Abortionist Abortion and Melodrama Sensation as White Supremacy Chapter 3: "Truly Womanly Work": Sentiment and Reform Fiction Radical Gender in the Social Problem Novel The "Abominations" of the Woman Physician Chapter 4: Absorbing the Terror: The Idealized Woman Physician Curing White Male Nationality The Woman Physician as Christ Figure Conclusion: Curing the Sentimental Feminist with the "Doctress" Genre and Gendered Medicine Queering the Doctress Affective Metanarratives

by "Nielsen BookData"

• NCID: BD01015315
• ISBN:
  • 9780367228439
• LCCN: 2021049508
• Country Code: us
• Title Language Code: eng
• Text Language Code: eng
• Place of Publication: New York
• Pages/Volumes: xvi, 92 p.
• Size: 23 cm
• Classification:
  • LCC : PS217.W64
  • DC23 : 810.9/928709034
• Subject Headings:
  • LCSH : American literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism
  • LCSH : Women physicians in literature
  • LCSH : Women in literature
  • LCSH : Abortion in literature
  • LCSH : Abortion -- United States -- History -- 19th century
  • LCSH : Literature and medicine -- United States -- History -- 19th century
• Parent Bibliography ID:
  • BC0800288X
  • BB21194212