The Novel's Seductions - Staehl's Corinne in Critical Inquiry (Hardcover)

Were the strength of a literary work measured by its impact on the reader, Corinne, or Italy would qualify as one among the most effective of texts, to judge by the intensity of the responses it has produced. Positing feminine transcendence through art as a counterdiscourse to the militaristic expansionism of Napoleon, the novel was acclaimed as a revolutionary act at the time of its first publication. Despite the hostility of patriarchal criticism that targeted the novel's literary value, Corinne was published in more than forty editions between 1807 and 1872. More recently, it has given rise to a fresh series of interpretations in the context of women's studies. The Novel's Seductions: Stael's Corinne in Critical Inquiry not only documents an extraordinary revival of interest in this work demonstrated by American academia, but provides teachers of literature as well as students with an introduction to the novel's problematics and to bibliographical sources. From essays written by both internationally known Staelians and younger scholars, the novel emerges as an ongoing communicative act, inviting a new generation of readers to reflect on the feminine condition. In order to capture the performative energy of Corinne as well as to indicate the directions in which Stael studies are evolving, the volume explores the transactional qualities of Stael's writing from various methodological and thematic perspectives.