Smile of Discontent

Foreword by Catharine R. Stimpson
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Preface
Introduction: Positioning the Feminine, 1778-1913
Part One: Theory and Praxis
1. The Poetics of Feminine Humor
Humor and Rhetoric
Humor and Affect
Surviving the Feminine: Humor and Pathology
2. The Feminine Difference: Three Paradigms
Captain Mirvan and Mrs. Selwyn
The Case of Anthony Trollope
Sadomasochism and the Humor Relationship: Henry James and Edith Wharton
Part Two: Readings
3. Humor as Maternal Aggression: Mansfield Park and Persuasion
The Example of Fanny Price
Undermining Patriarchy
The Relief of "Throwing Ridicule": Mary Crawford and the Narrator
Laughable Lovers: Fanny as Romantic Heroine
Laughable Lovers Again: Anne Elliot's "Eternal Constancy"
4. Humor as Daughterly Defense: Cranford
Locating the Narrator
Amazons and Patriarchs
The Dutiful Daughter in Drag: Mary Smith and Peter Jenkyns
Narrative Structure, Humorous Tropes, and Cultural Text
5. Humor as Maternal Protection: The Mill on the Floss
Parental Failures
Preoedipal Longing and the Objects of Displaced Desire
Narrative Mothering
Recapitulating the Maternal Bond
Bonds of Suffering and the Ties that Bind
Coda: Feminine Humor in the Twentieth Century
Notes
Bibliography
Index