Millennium Hall: a female Utopia of 1762

Walker, Sarah (1984). Millennium Hall: a female Utopia of 1762. University of Birmingham. M.A.

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Abstract

This thesis presents a reading of an obscure eighteenth-century novel. A brief description of it is followed by a discussion of reasons for presenting such a reading at this time, and of some of the problems likely to be encountered. Particular reference is made to current developments in feminist thinking about literature, and in contemporary literary theory, and a post-structuralist methodology adopted. Using Foucault's theory of discourse, eighteenth-century ideas about women are discussed, through the analysis of two mid-eighteenth-century texts on womanhood. In this context, the female utopia of the novel is examined, with particular reference to ideas about knowledge, sexuality and love. The construction of the latter two in the language of the text, and the fictional construction of a new social order depicted therein, is foregrounded, and reference made to some subjects of contemporary feminist debate.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Masters by Research > M.A.)

Award Type:

Masters by Research > M.A.

Supervisor(s):