Author ORCID Identifier
https://orcid.org/0009-0000-4891-4088
Date Available
6-30-2024
Year of Publication
2024
Document Type
Doctoral Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
College
Arts and Sciences
Department/School/Program
English
Advisor
Dr. Lisa Zunshine
Abstract
This dissertation explores representations of the gift in popular women’s novels of the long eighteenth century. Gift transactions in women’s fiction from this period reveal larger cultural reflections about the limitations placed on women who try to give and to help others. The primary works discussed in this project include Frances Burney’s Cecilia; or, Memoirs of an Heiress (1782), Eliza Haywood’s The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless (1751), Mary Hays’s Memoirs of Emma Courtney (1796), Sarah Fielding’s The History of Ophelia (1760), and Maria Edgeworth’s Belinda (1801). Frequently, the novels considered in this dissertation showcase the complicated conditions, oftentimes troubling characteristics, and uncertain outcomes of various gift transactions.
Gifts go awry. Gifts given with the best of intentions end up harming givers and/or recipients. Drawing upon concepts posited in Fritz Breithaupt’s 2019 study The Dark Sides of Empathy—such as the establishment of the “scene of empathy”, “false or filtered empathy”, “manipulative empathy”, and “humanitarian empathy”—this project considers fictional representations of philanthropy and connections between empathy and readers’ responses. Each chapter explores a variety of gift-acts, including efforts by lone women to help other vulnerable populations (such as orphans, widows, and prostitutes); larger projects orchestrated by male givers; and offerings that reveal the barriers posed by class, gender, and race considerations. These novels offer important, fascinating renderings of philanthropic exchanges and gift-acts that have heretofore been understudied. My project contributes to discussions of gift transactions, as well as to ongoing critical conversations about gift theory; discussions of philanthropy, charity, benevolence; the development of the novel and domestic fiction; and cultural understandings and constructions of women’s roles in the eighteenth century.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2024.250
Recommended Citation
Winter, Jillian, "THE DARK SIDES OF GIVING: REPRESENTATIONS OF PHILANTHROPY AND GIFTS IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY LITERATURE, C.1750-1820" (2024). Theses and Dissertations--English. 173.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/english_etds/173
Included in
English Language and Literature Commons, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons
