The Labors of Psyche: The Novel and the Female Hero

FAIN: FA-12114-78

Lee R. Edwards
University of Massachusetts, Amherst (Amherst, MA 01003-9242)

The Labors of Psyche: The Novel and the Female Hero examines the relationship between a character type—the heroic woman—and a literary genre—the novel, specifically the British and American novel from the 18th century to the present. The study will consist of 8 chapter and will develop a critical methodology appropriate to highlighting the traits of one enduring character type within a formally flexible controlling genre. Individual chapters will consider, The Hero, the Saint, and the Sinner—Moll Flanders, Clarissa, The Scarlet Letter, etc., to portray a single narrative dilemma: the problem of containing a deviant, but at least partially admirable, female character.