Pregnancy and the Novel: Representation and Concealment from Richardson to Hardy

怀孕与小说：从理查森到哈代的再现与隐藏

• 批准号: AH/W011204/1
• 负责人: Tracy Brain
• 金额: $ 18.66万
• 依托单位: Bath Spa University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FW011204%2F1
• 关键词: Pregnancy; Novel; Representation; Concealment; Richardson

This project will be driven by my insights as a novelist who writes literary adaptations of eighteenth- and nineteenth century texts partly to explore the challenges of representing pregnancy in fiction. It will also be informed by my expertise as a literary critic who has long been fascinated by how those before me have responded to pregnancy, especially in the context of violence and other forms of external control. The project's major output will be an academic monograph, Pregnancy and the Novel: Representation and Concealment from Richardson to Hardy. This will draw on medical texts to illuminate the ways that eighteenth- and nineteenth-century novelists simultaneously hide and reveal problematic pregnancies and births. It will reveal a reciprocal influence between literature and science.My study of the techniques of Richardson, the Brontes, Eliot, Dickens and Hardy informs my own fiction, especially the ways they embed reproductive events, utilise first- and second-person point of view, and depict sensitive or taboo subject matter. The research will also consider the strategies by which the novelists who follow Richardson and precede the Brontes depict pregnancy. Smollett, Sterne, Burney, Lewis, Inchbald, Dacre, Austen and Scott frequently utilise an explicitness or euphemism in order to reflect a character's immodesty or morality. They develop Richardson's strategies for linking pregnancy time to story time, and utilise his techniques of misdirection so that pregnancy masquerades as other illnesses; in light of this, I have made similar experiments in my own novels.By reconstructing historical knowledge of reproductive medicine and utilising my novelist's habit of reverse engineering the writer's planting of clues, this project will uncover what can easily be missed by twenty-first century readers. The project will change and deepen our understanding of multiple scenes in all of these novels. A few examples will illustrate this. Numerous critics dismiss the possibility of pregnancy in Clarissa (1747-48) or at best attribute the heroine's symptoms to a nervous disorder (e.g. Wilt, Meek, and Lovett). Yet her fainting, weeping and delirium are straight out of contemporary midwifery textbooks. Anne Bronte uses the diary form and references to the seasons to track her heroine's pregnancy in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848). In a clever feint, she describes pregnancy symptoms (a rush of blood, feeling 'ill' and 'unwell', being 'white in the face') that readers are primed to interpret as responses to distress and provocation (Ch. XXVII). Fanny's 'birth giving and death' in Far from the Madding Crowd (1874) have been seen as 'significant narrative ellipses' by a critic (Bronfen, 1993, 70) who overlooked the milestones and posts that Fanny counts and leans against at 'intervals' (Ch. XL) as she struggles to reach the poorhouse, which are surely Hardy's way of writing his heroine's labour into the text.This project is original because it will recalibrate Richardson's legacy in light of a new understanding of his strategies for embedding pregnancy. It will break new ground by revealing how, after Richardson, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century novelists depict pregnancies and labours that are seemingly absent from their texts but are in fact present. The project will utilise creative methods to involve non-academics in the research and create impact, especially when it comes to ideas of pregnancy and control of our own bodies, and how the language around this might change. Public engagement materials will help pregnant women and birthing people to tell stories and reflect upon experiences, and be of use to advocacy organisations as well as literary societies. I will collaborate with medical practitioners, enhancing their well-being by leading a creative writing workshop for those who are interested in developing their own medical memoirs; and a specialist reading group on concealed pregnancy.

这个项目将由我作为小说家的见解驱动，他撰写了18世纪和19世纪文本的文学改编，部分是为了探索代表小说中怀孕的挑战。我作为文学评论家的专业知识也将为这一点所吸引，他长期以来一直对我对怀孕的反应，尤其是在暴力和其他形式的外部控制的背景下着迷。该项目的主要成果将是学术专着，怀孕和小说：从理查森到哈代的代表和隐瞒。这将利用医学文本来阐明18世纪和19世纪小说家同时隐藏并揭示有问题的怀孕和出生的方式。它将揭示文学与科学之间的相互影响。我对理查森，勃朗特斯，艾略特，狄更斯和哈迪技术的研究会为我自己的小说提供了信息，尤其是他们嵌入生殖事件的方式，利用了第一和第二个人的观点，并描述了敏感或嘲讽的主题。该研究还将考虑跟随理查森并在勃朗特描绘怀孕之前的小说家的策略。 Smollett，Sterne，Burney，Lewis，Inchbald，Dacre，Austen和Scott经常利用明确的或委婉的说法来反映角色的谦虚或道德。他们制定了理查森（Richardson）将怀孕时间与故事时间联系起来的策略，并利用他的误导技术，以使怀孕伪装成其他疾病。鉴于这一点，我在自己的小说中进行了类似的实验。通过重建有关生殖医学的历史知识，并利用小说家的习惯逆转工程，逆向作者的植物植入了线索，该项目将揭示21世纪读者很容易错过的东西。该项目将改变并加深我们对所有这些小说中多个场景的理解。一些例子将说明这一点。许多批评家驳斥了克拉丽莎（1747-48）怀孕的可能性，或者最多将女主角症状归因于神经疾病（例如Wilt，Meek和Lovett）。然而，她的昏厥，哭泣和del妄直接来自当代的助产士教科书。安妮·勃朗特（Anne Bronte）使用日记形式和对季节的引用来跟踪她在怀尔德菲尔音乐厅（Wildfell Hall）租户（1848）的怀孕。她在一个聪明的假发中描述了怀孕症状（血腥的潮流，感到“病”和“不适”，是“白色的脸”），读者可以解释为对痛苦和挑衅的反应（第xxvii）。批评家（Bronfen，1993，70）将范妮（Fanny）在远离狂人的人群（1874年）中的“生育和死亡”（1874年）被视为“重要的叙事省略”，他们忽略了范妮（Fanny）在“间隔”（Ch.xl）（Ch.xl）努力地努力地努力地努力地努力地写下他的英雄，因为这是他的努力，因为这是他的努力，因为这是他的努力，因为他的努力是他的英雄，而这是他的英雄，因为这是他的英雄，因为他的努力是他的英雄，因为他的努力是他的英雄，因为他的努力是他的英雄。鉴于对他嵌入怀孕的策略有了新的了解，理查森的遗产重新构建。这将通过揭示理查森（Richardson）18世纪和十九世纪小说家描绘了怀孕和劳动，这似乎是在看似缺乏的，但实际上实际上是在场，这将打破新的立场。该项目将利用创造性的方法参与研究中，并创造影响，尤其是在怀孕和控制自己身体的想法以及周围语言可能会改变时。公共参与材料将帮助孕妇和分娩者讲述故事并反思经历，并用于倡导组织和文学社会。我将与医生合作，通过为那些有兴趣制定自己的医疗回忆录的人带领创意写作研讨会来增强他们的福祉；以及一个有关隐藏怀孕的专业阅读小组。