TY - BOOK AU - Schaffer,Talia TI - Communities of Care: The Social Ethics of Victorian Fiction SN - 9780691226514 PY - 2021///] CY - Princeton, NJ PB - Princeton University Press KW - Care of the sick in literature KW - English fiction KW - 19th century KW - History and criticism KW - LITERARY CRITICISM / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh KW - bisacsh KW - Alterity KW - Anthony Trollope KW - Aunt KW - Author KW - Caregiver KW - Case study KW - Character (arts) KW - Clam chowder KW - Classroom KW - Copyright KW - Criticism KW - Daniel Deronda KW - Disability KW - Disease KW - Dombey and Son KW - Egalitarianism KW - Emotional labor KW - Enmeshment KW - Esther Summerson KW - Ethicist KW - Ethics of care KW - Extended family KW - Generosity KW - Genre KW - George Eliot KW - Governess KW - Household KW - Individualism KW - Institution KW - Jane Austen KW - Kinship KW - Literary criticism KW - Literature KW - Manifesto KW - Mentorship KW - Minor Characters KW - Modernity KW - Morality KW - Mrs KW - Narrative KW - Nel Noddings KW - Newspaper KW - Novelist KW - Nursing KW - Oppression KW - Performativity KW - Personal network KW - Personhood KW - Pickup truck KW - Poetry KW - Postmodernism KW - Princeton University Press KW - Public sphere KW - Racism KW - Romanticism KW - Sanditon KW - Sensibility KW - Sibling KW - Social relation KW - Subjectivity KW - Suffering KW - Sympathy KW - The Heir of Redclyffe KW - The Wings of the Dove KW - Theory KW - Tiny Tim (A Christmas Carol) KW - Victorian era KW - Victorian literature KW - Villette (novel) KW - Writing N1 - Frontmatter --; Contents --; Preface and Acknowledgments --; Introduction: Care Communities Today --; Chapter 1 Ethics of Care and the Care Community --; chapter 2 Austen, Dickens, and Brontë: Bodies before the Normate --; chapter 3 Global Migrant Care and Emotional Labor in Villette --; chapter 4 Beyond Sympathy: The State of Care in Daniel Deronda --; chapter 5 Care Meets the Silent Treatment in The Wings of the Dove --; chapter 6 Composite Fiction and the Care Community in The Heir of Redclyffe --; Epilogue: Critical Care --; Notes --; Works Cited --; Index; restricted access N2 - What we can learn about caregiving and community from the Victorian novelIn Communities of Care, Talia Schaffer explores Victorian fictional representations of care communities, small voluntary groups that coalesce around someone in need. Drawing lessons from Victorian sociality, Schaffer proposes a theory of communal care and a mode of critical reading centered on an ethics of care.In the Victorian era, medical science offered little hope for cure of illness or disability, and chronic invalidism and lengthy convalescences were common. Small communities might gather around afflicted individuals to minister to their needs and palliate their suffering. Communities of Care examines these groups in the novels of Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Henry James, and Charlotte Yonge, and studies the relationships that they exemplify. How do carers become part of the community? How do they negotiate status? How do caring emotions develop? And what does it mean to think of care as an activity rather than a feeling? Contrasting the Victorian emphasis on community and social structure with modern individualism and interiority, Schaffer’s sympathetic readings draw us closer to the worldview from which these novels emerged. Schaffer also considers the ways in which these models of carework could inform and improve practice in criticism, in teaching, and in our daily lives.Through the lens of care, Schaffer discovers a vital form of communal relationship in the Victorian novel. Communities of Care also demonstrates that literary criticism done well is the best care that scholars can give to texts UR - https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691226514?locatt=mode:legacy UR - https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9780691226514 UR - https://www.degruyter.com/document/cover/isbn/9780691226514/original ER -