Laura Vorachek - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Laura Vorachek

Jane Austen suggests in Persuasion the pressures that the increased mobility of the middle class ... more Jane Austen suggests in Persuasion the pressures that the increased mobility of the middle class placed on the established aristocratic society in her time. Anne Elliot especially brings to light the inherited assumptions of her society. She can marry within her social rank (Mr. Elliot or Charles Musgrove) or malry below her (Wentworth at age 23), but either is a choice within the limits established by her society. One owns land or one does not. But when Wentworth returns, a man of name and wealth, he is not a member of the landed gentry nor is he below Anne in social rank. He represents an alternative in the navy. Naval society differs from aristocratic society in that social mobility is possible, wealth and status are attainable, based on merit rather than birth. A gentleman in the navy is one who eams this position; he distinguishes himself by serving his country. As the definition of "gentleman" shifts from one based on the requirements of inherited rank, wealth and pr...

$Research paper thumbnail of Intertextuality and Ideology: Jane Austen\u27s \u27Pride and Prejudice\u27 and James Fordyce\u27s \u27Sermons to Young Women\u27$

In Jane Austen’s Art of Memory and other works, Jocelyn Harris has demonstrated the importance of... more In Jane Austen’s Art of Memory and other works, Jocelyn Harris has demonstrated the importance of Austen’s literary contexts for understanding and appreciating Austen’s art. One context for understanding Pride and Prejudice is the conduct book it mentions by name, James Fordyce’s Sermons to Young Women. Mr. Collins chooses it to read aloud to the Bennet girls, and when Lydia interrupts him, he responds: “I have often observed how little young ladies are interested by books of a serious stamp, though written solely for their benefit.” I would argue that reading Pride and Prejudice next to Fordyce’s Sermons reveals that Austen was not only “interested” in this text, but actively engaged with its proscriptions. Mr. Collins’s statement, then, becomes ironic, hinting at Austen’s playful response to this “serious” book. While critics have examined Austen’s works in light of the conduct literature of the period, they argue either that Austen falls in line with conduct books or that she com...

$Research paper thumbnail of Dangerous Women: Vera Caspary’s Rewriting of \u27Lady Audley’s Secret\u27 in \u27Bedelia\u27$

Considering Vera Caspary\u27s Bedelia as a reimagining of Mary Elizabeth Braddon\u27s Lady Audley... more Considering Vera Caspary\u27s Bedelia as a reimagining of Mary Elizabeth Braddon\u27s Lady Audley\u27s Secret allows for a new critical interpretation that refutes the typical view of Bedelia as reinforcing traditional gender roles. Instead, Caspary critiques World War II America by bringing Victorian concerns with female roles into the twentieth century

$Research paper thumbnail of Speculation and the Emotional Economy of \u27Mansfield Park\u27$

At the midpoint of Mansfield Park (1814), the Bertram family dines at the Parsonage, and card gam... more At the midpoint of Mansfield Park (1814), the Bertram family dines at the Parsonage, and card games make up the after dinner entertainment. The characters form two groups, with Sir Thomas, Mrs. Norris, and Mr. and Mrs. Grant playing Whist, while Lady Bertram, Fanny, William, Edmund, and Henry and Mary Crawford play Speculation, This scene is central not only because Speculation reveals certain characters\u27 personalities, but also because another type of “speculation” occurs during the game as the players contemplate or conjecture about one another. Moreover, “speculation” in the sense of gambling functions as a metaphor for the vicissitudes of the marriage market for women. Critics have discussed Austen’s word play with economic terms in Emma and Persuasion, but the valences of “speculation” in Mansfield Park have not been fully examined. A close look at this aspect of the novel reveals that most characters, particularly the women, engage in speculation: assessing others’ value, c...

Clues: A Journal of Detection, 2019

This essay places Dorothy L. Sayers's novel Unnatural Death (1927) in the context of heightened x... more This essay places Dorothy L. Sayers's novel Unnatural Death (1927) in the context of heightened xenophobia and racism in interwar Britain, arguing that Sayers attempts to challenge prevalent cultural associations of blackness and criminality. Like Wilkie Collins, Sayers works to critique and undermine racist assumptions and to generate sympathy for the colonial Other. Victoria Stewart argues that it is necessary to look at "contemporaneous narratives about, and ways of understanding, crime because detective fiction was not hermetically sealed from a broader, pervasive field of representations of criminality" (1-2). Considering nonfictional accounts of crime alongside fiction, she analyzes what crime writing about murder reveals about sociocultural attitudes toward marriage and gender issues. This essay extends Stewart's argument to encompass other forms of criminality, including rioting and rape, to explore what contemporary narratives about these types of crimes expose about interwar attitudes to race. The antiblack racism of the interwar period is conspicuous in Dorothy L. Sayers's 1927 novel Unnatural Death, yet critics and biographers are largely silent on this prejudice or, at most, make passing reference to "the easy racism of Sayers' novels" (Heilbrun 236). Their reticence perhaps can be attributed to a tendency, following W. H. Auden's 1948 essay "The Guilty Vicarage," to read Golden Age detective fiction as situated in "a closed society" detached from larger social currents (149). However, reading Unnatural Death in the context of the heightened xenophobia and prejudice of the interwar years accentuates the novel's critique of contemporary British attitudes that identified colonial Others with criminality. As Stewart notes, Golden Age authors recognized that

The Routledge Handbook to Nineteenth-Century British Periodicals and Newspapers, 2016

About two-thirds of the way through George Du Maurier's Trilby (1894), a novel that entranced... more About two-thirds of the way through George Du Maurier's Trilby (1894), a novel that entranced the reading public with its descriptions of Bohemian Paris and mesmerism, there is a seventeen-page digression on The Origin of Species} This rumination is sparked by the fact that Little Billee is "reading Mr. Darwin's immortal book for the third time" while he contemplates proposing to the parson's daughter, Alice (180; pt. 5). Ultimately, he cannot bring himself to do so because Alice believes, among other Bible stories, that "[t]he world was made in six days. It is just six thousand years old," a view debunked in The Origin by Darwin's depiction of the gradual evolution of species over vast periods of time (174; pt. 5).2 While the controversy elicited in the second half of the nineteenth century by Darwin's theory of natural selection continues today, the question remains: what is this debate doing in a novel about expatriate artists and the woman...

Victorian Periodicals Review, 2016

Sparrow, like many female journalists, was middle class. She was born at Woodfold Park, Lancashir... more Sparrow, like many female journalists, was middle class. She was born at Woodfold Park, Lancashire (near Blackburn) on June 24, 1858, to John and Frances Sparrow. John was a magistrate and cotton merchant who employed 1,200 workers in his cotton mill. 3 A family friend noted that Anna Mary was "brought up in every comfort," but her family lost their fortune at some point and she turned to writing in order to support herself. 4 At age twenty-three, she was living in London with her sister and brother-in-law while trying her hand at fiction. 5 Between 1886 and 1891, she published a collection of children's stories as well as poems, short stories, and serial novels, which mainly appeared in Catholic monthlies, the Lamp and the Month. 6 Since there were two other A. Sparrows publishing when she started writing, she adopted "T. Sparrow" as her pen name, which referenced her nickname, "Tissie." 7 By 1894, Sparrow, like many other single women who had to work for a living, turned to journalism. 8 Journalism was an attractive option for women because, according to Frances Low's 1904 guidebook Press Work for Women, "It is quite possible for the novice in journalism to make a small income from the start, a situation that exists in no other form of employment open to women." 9 Indeed, Sparrow had more success with reporting than with fiction. She published in a wide range of periodicals: daily newspapers, such as the Daily Chronicle and Pall Mall Gazette, and monthly magazines, like the conservative New Review, the popular Strand Magazine, and the religiously oriented Newbery House Magazine and Quiver. At the height of her career, Sparrow was earning £18 a week, far more than the £2 to £3 a week that Low estimated women could earn in the journalism field. 10 The journalistic genre Sparrow found especially remunerative was investigative reporting focused on the lives of London's poor. Her first prominently placed article, appearing in the New Review in August 1894, was an exposé on women's doss houses, which she wrote after spending several nights in a shelter. She then embarked on a thirteen-part series for the Quiver entitled "As One of the Penniless Poor." As preparation for writing these articles, she lived with the poor in London's East End and observed men, women, and children engaged in the occupations of palm-working, fur-pulling, and fish-curing. She also published articles on similar subjects for the Strand, Newbery House Magazine, Pall Mall Gazette, and Daily Chronicle between 1894 and 1900. 11 In adopting this mode of reporting, Sparrow was following a trend made popular by W. T. Stead, George Sims, and others in the 1880s. Even more immediately, she was following the example of American journalist Elizabeth Banks, who made a splash in 1893 with her series "In Cap and Apron: Two Weeks in Service," for which she masqueraded as a parlor

Persuasions the Journal of the Jane Austen Society of North America, 1997

Clio a Journal of Literature History and the Philosophy of History, 2010

And when historians consider music as a leisure activity, they turn their attention to the develo... more And when historians consider music as a leisure activity, they turn their attention to the development of public concert life or to working-class pursuits such as choral societies, mass singing movements, brass bands, and music halls. 2 Examining domestic music as a middle-class recreation reveals that the middle class attempted to control the leisure time of its female members by instituting music-making-and for much of the century this meant playing the piano-as a central feminine activity. Piano manufacture and sales figures reveal just how prevalent this pastime was. Production of the instrument rose exponentially during the nineteenth century due to industrialization, which streamlined construction, and consumer demand. In 1784, the English piano manufacturing firm John Broadwood and& Sons sold 38 harpsichords and 133 square pianos. 3

Victorians a Journal of Culture and Literature, 2013

Persuasions the Journal of the Jane Austen Society of North America, 2013

British literature. She has published articles on Jane Austen and on Victorian musical culture in... more British literature. She has published articles on Jane Austen and on Victorian musical culture in Victorian Periodicals Review, Victorian Literature and Culture, Victorians, Clio, Clues, and Persuasions. AT THE MID-POINT OF Mansfield Park (1814), the Bertram family dines at the Par onage, and card game make up the after dinner entertainment. The characters form two groups, with Sir Thomas, Mrs. Norri , and Mr. and Mrs.

Victorian Literature and Culture, 2009

About two-thirds of the waythrough George Du Maurier'sTrilby(1894), a novel that entranced th... more About two-thirds of the waythrough George Du Maurier'sTrilby(1894), a novel that entranced the reading public with its descriptions of Bohemian Paris and mesmerism, there is a seventeen-page digression onThe Origin of Species. This rumination is sparked by the fact that Little Billee is “reading Mr. Darwin's immortal book for the third time” while he contemplates proposing to the parson's daughter, Alice (180; pt. 5). Ultimately, he cannot bring himself to do so because Alice believes, among other Bible stories, that “[t]he world was made in six days. It is just six thousand years old,” a view debunked inThe Originby Darwin's depiction of the gradual evolution of species over vast periods of time (174; pt. 5). While the controversy elicited in the second half of the nineteenth century by Darwin's theory of natural selection continues today, the question remains: what is this debate doing in a novel about expatriate artists and the woman they love? I read this see...

The Idea of Music in Victorian Fiction. Eds. Sophie …, 2004

Victorian Periodicals Review, 2012

In 1867, the year following his pioneering "A Night in a Workhouse," James Greenwood again donned... more In 1867, the year following his pioneering "A Night in a Workhouse," James Greenwood again donned working-class attire-"a slouchy coat and a slouchy cap"-and set out to investigate another urban social issue: the Italian organ-grinders who populated the streets of London and drove many to distraction with their music. 1 Organ-grinders had been castigated in the periodical press throughout the century as thieves, extortionists, and public nuisances. Greenwood's initial foray into the Italian colony in the neighborhood of Saffron Hill was followed in the 1890s by other investigators. Female journalists, in particular, improved upon Greenwood's incognito investigative technique by costuming themselves not only as working class but also as Italian, living the lives of organ-grinders for a day or even, in one instance, a week. Recent scholarship on incognito journalists and social investigators has focused on the cross-class and gendered aspects of undercover work among the poor. As

Clues: A Journal of Detection, 2010

Considering Vera Caspary's Bedelia as a reimagining of Mary Elizabeth Braddon's Lady Audley's Sec... more Considering Vera Caspary's Bedelia as a reimagining of Mary Elizabeth Braddon's Lady Audley's Secret allows for a new critical interpretation that refutes the typical view of Bedelia as reinforcing traditional gender roles. Instead, Caspary critiques World War II America by bringing Victorian concerns with female roles into the twentieth century. A scandalous success during its own time, Mary Elizabeth Braddon's 1863 novel Lady Audiey's Secret was an inspiration for many writers who borrowed both its piot and sensational elements. 1 One adaptation that has not received sustained critical attention in this regard is Vera Capsary's 1944 novel Bedelia. Considering Bedelia as a reimagining of Lady Audley's Secret allows one to read against the grain of critical interpretation of Caspary's novel, which tends to see it as reinforcing traditional gender roles. On the contrary, in rewriting Bradd on's novel , Caspary brings Victorian-era concerns with female identity and women's limited opportunities into the twentieth century, providing a social critique of World War II America. In addition, the genres in which each author was working-nineteenth-century sensation fiction and twentieth-century crime fiction-were especially suited to questioning the cultural hegemonies of their respective time periods, particularly with regard to gender. Although Lady Audley's Secret has garnered much critical attention in recent yea rs, Bedelia, recently reissued by the Feminist Press, is likely less familiar to readers. Caspary's novel focuses on the relationship of a newly married couple, Charlie and Bedelia Horst. The novel is set in a Connecticut country house over a few days in 1913, as Charlie slowly discovers that his perfect wife has not only attempted to poison him but has killed several previous husbands as well. The novel ends with Charlie pressing Bedelia to commit suicide by drinking the very poison she had given him. Although there is no direct evidence that Caspary read Lady Audley's Secret, she was

Gissing and the City, 2006

In his depiction of Alma Frothingham, the female protagonist of The Whirlpool, George Gissing int... more In his depiction of Alma Frothingham, the female protagonist of The Whirlpool, George Gissing intersects two cultural debates of the fin de siecle: the New Woman and female musical genius. Setting his novel against the backdrop of the specular economy of late nineteenth-century London, Gissing’s engagement with these debates sheds light on the vexed question of his feminism. His New Woman’s increased autonomy and sexual freedom is evident in her pursuit of a professional musical career. Alma believes she has control over her own sexuality and the sexual response her performances elicit in others. However, she does not recognize that by marketing her talent, and thereby commodifying herself, she loses the very agency in the public marketplace which she believes she has.

George Eliot George Henrey Lewes Studies, 2000

The piano rapidly became the instrument of choice in the nineteenth century, a fixture in middle-... more The piano rapidly became the instrument of choice in the nineteenth century, a fixture in middle-class British households within 30 years of its first becoming available for domestic use in 1771. Absent from male education, learning to play the piano was a standard part of a middle-class girl's training since it was believed to provide discipline, diversion, and a skill that would help her attract a husband. The piano's specific class and gender associations suggest it functioned within a middle-class ideology which naturalized these distinctions, as well as defined women's sexuality. At the same time, both the piano and women's sexual purity were symbols of middle-class economic status. Due to their association, the piano came to embody the somewhat contradictory cultural conceptions of middle-class female sexuality in the art and literature of the period. Nineteenth-century debates about the nature of women's sexuality have resulted in disparate representations by twentieth-century theoreticians and historians. Michel Foucault argues that medical discourse sought to order and define women's sexuality in this period by hystericizing women's bodies attributing nervous disorders to sexual organs. Complementing this discourse of illness was a view of women as asexual. Thomas Laqueur contends that a change in the perception of women's sexuality, from women as carnal beings to women as "passionless," occurred in the eighteenth century. This redefinition of women's sexuality, part of a new stress on oppositional differentiation between men and women, was supported by evidence of automatic ovulation which indicated that female orgasm was not necessary for conception as previously believed. Both the hysterization of women's bodies and medical discoveries about automatic ovulation pathologized women's sexuality. Both theses also emphasize the influence of medical discourse in shaping lay opinion and, consequently, women's sexuality. Michael Mason argues, however, that lay opinion differed from that of elite medical researchers in that the uterus was believed to have an influence on a woman's whole being, dispersing sites of sexual arousal throughout a woman's body a view certainly at odds with passionlessness. He does note, though, that it was widely believed, despite evidence to the contrary, that "women may acquire or at least develop their sexual appetite through sexual activity" (221). The