Journal article

Publication year: 2018

Pages: 78-88

Journal: Brontë Studies: The Journal of the Brontë Society

Volume number: 43

Issue number: 1

ISSN: 1474-8932

eISSN: 1745-8226

DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/14748932.2018.1389153

Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group

Abstract: 
This article analyses the economic dimensions of Charlotte Bronte's Shirley (1849) through an approach inspired by feminist economics. In addition to addressing how Charlotte Bronte explores the connections between the economy, marriage and love, the feminist economic interpretation reveals her ambivalent attitude towards the sexual division of labour and women's domestic work. Besides shedding light on hitherto overlooked economic aspects of Shirley, this article argues that numerous economic analyses of literature are unwittingly premised on an androcentric conception of the economy which obscures women's contributions to both the economy and economic writing. The article promotes the implementation of feminist economics for the study of literature as a means of arriving at more accurate and gender balanced economic readings of texts.

Harvard Citation style: Rostek, J. (2018) Implementing Feminist Economics for the Study of Literature: The Economic Dimensions of Charlotte Bronte's Shirley Revisited, Brontë Studies: The Journal of the Brontë Society, 43(1), pp. 78-88. https://doi.org/10.1080/14748932.2018.1389153

APA Citation style: Rostek, J. (2018). Implementing Feminist Economics for the Study of Literature: The Economic Dimensions of Charlotte Bronte's Shirley Revisited. Brontë Studies: The Journal of the Brontë Society. 43(1), 78-88. https://doi.org/10.1080/14748932.2018.1389153