The Limits of the Human: Fictions of Anomaly, Race and Gender in the Long Eighteenth Century [Paperback]

In this book, Nussbaum examines literary and cultural representations of human difference in eighteenth-century English literature.Nussbaum examines literary and cultural representations of human difference in England and its empire during the long eighteenth century. With a special focus on women's writing, Nussbaum analyzes writing from the Restoration to abolition. She considers a range of anomalies (defects, disease, and disability) as they intermingle with ideas of femininity, masculinity, and race to define 'normalcy' as national identity. Incorporating writings by Burney, Johnson, Sterne, and Equiano among others--Nussbaum treats a range of disabilities as they are inflected by emerging notions of a racial femininity and masculinity.Nussbaum examines literary and cultural representations of human difference in England and its empire during the long eighteenth century. With a special focus on women's writing, Nussbaum analyzes writing from the Restoration to abolition. She considers a range of anomalies (defects, disease, and disability) as they intermingle with ideas of femininity, masculinity, and race to define 'normalcy' as national identity. Incorporating writings by Burney, Johnson, Sterne, and Equiano among others--Nussbaum treats a range of disabilities as they are inflected by emerging notions of a racial femininity and masculinity.Felicity Nussbaum examines literary and cultural representations of human difference in England and its empire during the eighteenth century. Focusing especially on women's writing, Nussbaum analyzes it from the Restoration to abolition by considering a range of anomalies (defects, disease, and disability) as they intermingle with ideas of femininity, masculinity, and race to define normalcy . Incorporating writings by Burney, Johnson, Sterne, Equiano and others, she covers a range of disabilities altered by emerging concepts of racial femininity and masculinity.List of illustrations; Acknowledgments; Introduction: monstrlƒ