As Samuel Richardson's 'exemplar to her sex,' Clarissa in the eponymous novel published in 1748 is the paradigmatic female victim. In Clarissa's Ciphers, Terry Castle delineates the ways in which, in a world where only voice carries authority, Clarissa is repeatedly silenced, both metaphorically and literally. A victim of rape, she is first a victim of hermeneutic abuse. Drawing on feminist criticism and hermeneutic theory, Castle examines the question of authority in the novel. By tracing the patterns of abuse and exploitation that occur when meanings are arbitrarily and violently imposed, she explores the sexual politics of reading.
- ISBN10 0801414954
- ISBN13 9780801414954
- Publish Date 31 July 1982 (first published 1 January 1982)
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 12 July 2000
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Cornell University Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 204
- Language English