Parents and Children in the Mid-Victorian Novel: Traumatic Encounters and the Formation of Family

Madeleine Wood's book explores how the mid-Victorian novels present their protagonists in a state of damage, caused by the conditions of the mid-century family. She argues that the authors pushed beyond contemporary scientific models and paved the way for psychoanalysis in Vienna at the fin de siècle.

\n Format: Paperback / softback
\n Length: 344 pages
\n Publication date: 01 November 2021
\n Publisher: Springer Nature Switzerland AG
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This book offers a novel perspective on the emergence of 'trauma' in the nineteenth century by reinterpreting the works of Dickens, Emily, Charlotte Bronte, Collins, Gaskell, and Elliot through fresh readings. Madeleine Wood contends that the mid-Victorian novels present their protagonists in a state of damage, shaped and provoked by the conditions of the mid-century family. The cross-generational relationship is portrayed as formative and traumatizing.

By emphasizing the significance of family relationships for both our psychological well-being and social identity, the Victorian authors ventured beyond the contemporary scientific models available to them. Madeleine Wood delves into the literary and historical contexts of the mid-century period that fostered this new literary emphasis, laying the groundwork for the emergence of psychoanalysis in Vienna at the turn of the century.

Through an analysis of a series of theoretical texts, Madeleine Wood demonstrates that psychoanalysis shares the mid-Victorian concern with the unequal relationship between adults and children, guiding her reading through Freud's early writings and Jean Laplanche's 'general theory of seduction.'

\n Weight: 484g\n
Dimension: 150 x 209 x 29 (mm)\n
ISBN-13: 9783030454715\n
Edition number: 1st ed. 2020\n