Abstract
This essay explores the female sentimental swoon in eighteenth-century novels, including Sarah Fielding's _The History of Ophelia_ (1760), Jean-Jacques Rousseau's _Julie, or the New Heloise_ (1761), and Elizabeth Inchbald's _A Simple Story_ (1791). It argues that losses of sense and consciousness express the discontents of eighteenth-century female psycho-sexual existence. The essay approaches the psychopathology of sensibility by means of a theoretical framework that connects eighteenth-century medical explanations with psychoanalytic ideas of negativity.
Original language | English |
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Journal | Romantic Circles Praxis Series |
Volume | 2008 |
Issue number | December |
Publication status | Published - 2008 |
Externally published | Yes |