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The Resource Victorian literature and the Victorian state : character and governance in a liberal society, Lauren M.E. Goodlad

Victorian literature and the Victorian state : character and governance in a liberal society, Lauren M.E. Goodlad

Creator
Summary
"Studies of Victorian governance have been profoundly influenced by Discipline and Punish, Michel Foucault's groundbreaking genealogy of power in modern societies. Yet, according to Lauren M.E. Goodlad, Foucault's analysis is better suited to the history of the Continent than to that of nineteenth-century Britain, with its decentralized, voluntarist institutional culture and passionate disdain for state interference. Focusing on a wide range of Victorian writing - from literary figures such as Charles Dickens, George Gissing, Harriet Martineau, J.S. Mill, Anthony Trollope, and H.G. Wells to prominent social reformers such as Edwin Chadwick, Thomas Chalmers, Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth, and Beatrice Webb - Goodlad shows that Foucault's later essays on liberalism and "governmentality" provide better critical tools for understanding the nineteenth-century British state." "Victorian Literature and the Victorian State delves into contemporary debates over sanitary, education, and civil rights reform, the Poor Laws, and the century-long attempt to substitute organized charity for state services. Goodlad's readings elucidate the distinctive quandary of Victorian Britain and, indeed, any modern society conceived in liberal terms: the elusive quest for a "pastoral" agency that is rational, all-embracing, and effective but also anti-bureaucratic, personalized, and liberatory. In this study, impressively grounded in literary criticism, social history, and political theory, Goodlad offers a timely post-Foucauldian account of Victorian governance that speaks to the resurgent neoliberalism of our own day."--Jacket
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
1 online resource (xv, 298 pages)
Contents
  • Beyond the panopticon : the critical challenge of a liberal society
  • Making the working man like me : charity, the novel, and the new poor law
  • Is there a pastor in the house? : sanitary reform and governing agency in Dickens's midcentury fiction
  • An officer and a gentleman : civil service reform and the early career of Anthony Trollope
  • A riddle without an answer : character and education in Our mutual friend
  • Dueling pastors, dueling worldviews
  • Social security
Isbn
9780801881541
Instance
Label
Victorian literature and the Victorian state : character and governance in a liberal society
Title
Victorian literature and the Victorian state
Title remainder
character and governance in a liberal society
Statement of responsibility
Lauren M.E. Goodlad
Creator
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
Summary
"Studies of Victorian governance have been profoundly influenced by Discipline and Punish, Michel Foucault's groundbreaking genealogy of power in modern societies. Yet, according to Lauren M.E. Goodlad, Foucault's analysis is better suited to the history of the Continent than to that of nineteenth-century Britain, with its decentralized, voluntarist institutional culture and passionate disdain for state interference. Focusing on a wide range of Victorian writing - from literary figures such as Charles Dickens, George Gissing, Harriet Martineau, J.S. Mill, Anthony Trollope, and H.G. Wells to prominent social reformers such as Edwin Chadwick, Thomas Chalmers, Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth, and Beatrice Webb - Goodlad shows that Foucault's later essays on liberalism and "governmentality" provide better critical tools for understanding the nineteenth-century British state." "Victorian Literature and the Victorian State delves into contemporary debates over sanitary, education, and civil rights reform, the Poor Laws, and the century-long attempt to substitute organized charity for state services. Goodlad's readings elucidate the distinctive quandary of Victorian Britain and, indeed, any modern society conceived in liberal terms: the elusive quest for a "pastoral" agency that is rational, all-embracing, and effective but also anti-bureaucratic, personalized, and liberatory. In this study, impressively grounded in literary criticism, social history, and political theory, Goodlad offers a timely post-Foucauldian account of Victorian governance that speaks to the resurgent neoliberalism of our own day."--Jacket
Action
digitized
Cataloging source
REDDC
Dewey number
820.9/358
Index
index present
LC call number
PR468.P57
LC item number
G66 2003eb
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
  • dictionaries
  • bibliography
Label
Victorian literature and the Victorian state : character and governance in a liberal society, Lauren M.E. Goodlad
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 267-286) and index
http://library.link/vocab/branchCode
  • net
Carrier category
online resource
Carrier category code
cr
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Color
multicolored
Content category
text
Content type code
txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
Beyond the panopticon : the critical challenge of a liberal society -- Making the working man like me : charity, the novel, and the new poor law -- Is there a pastor in the house? : sanitary reform and governing agency in Dickens's midcentury fiction -- An officer and a gentleman : civil service reform and the early career of Anthony Trollope -- A riddle without an answer : character and education in Our mutual friend -- Dueling pastors, dueling worldviews -- Social security
Control code
ocm70742727
Dimensions
unknown
Extent
1 online resource (xv, 298 pages)
Form of item
online
Isbn
9780801881541
Media category
computer
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
c
http://library.link/vocab/recordID
.b24369627
Reproduction note
Electronic reproduction.
Specific material designation
remote
System control number
  • (OCoLC)70742727
  • pebcs0801869633
System details
Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002.
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