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Craig White's Literature Courses Novel of Manners |
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(web definitions)
The Novel of Manners
from
http://www.enotes.com/nineteenth-century-criticism/novel-manners
INTRODUCTION
Although the novel of manners has always
defied easy definition, literary historians seem to have arrived at a consensus
on at least three elements: it originated in
Changes in English society in the
nineteenth century that eroded the boundaries between these various groups
provided the background for the emergence of the novel of manners.
Industrialization, urbanization, and revolutions in transportation and
communication were accompanied by profound changes in the social hierarchy. As
the aristocracy lost power to industrial and business interests, the standard
markers for determining an individual's position in society were becoming
increasingly unreliable. In some sense, the novel of manners emerged to clear up
this uncertainty by offering detailed renderings of how the various groups
behaved in everyday situations, and by both describing and prescribing codes of
conduct. Many works contrasted the customs of the various groups, examining not
only class and economic differences, but also the differences between city and
countryside, between an earlier agrarian culture and a contemporary industrial
order, and between
This apparent necessity to compare the
conventions of two or more groups led some early critics to insist that the
novel of manners was not suited to American literature. They proclaimed the
The novel of manners is dominated by women—as authors, as subjects, and often as intended audience—and for this reason has occasionally been dismissed as trivial. William Forsyth (1871), for example, tempers his praise of Jane Austen's novels by criticizing the constant "husband-hunting" by Austen's female characters. But although the focus of the novel of manners—domestic life, matrimony, and social behavior—tends to be narrow, the "manners" being studied very often have far wider implications beyond the pouring of tea and the search for the proper mate. Adherence to good manners in these texts is not only a reliable indicator of one's social standing, but is intended to serve as an indicator of good morals as well.
The novel of manners often deals with gender issues as well, as the accepted standards for both manners and morals differ markedly between men and women. Regardless of the social class under study, there are frequently two distinct sets of codes in operation, and as many feminist critics point out, the ideals prescribed for women were often a source of anxiety for nineteenth-century women writers—an anxiety that plays itself out in the novels. In many woman-authored texts, the interaction of individual characters with the social conventions of their cultures is not a happy one, and the conventions themselves are as likely to be satirized as celebrated.
The novel of manners describes in
detail the customs, behaviors, habits, and expectations of a certain social
group at a specific time and place [Realism]. Usually these conventions shape the behavior
of the main characters, and sometimes even stifle or repress them. Often the
novel of manners is satiric, and it always realistic in depiction. Examples
include Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice,
William Makepeace Thackeray's Vanity Fair,
and various works by Edith Wharton.
·
The novel of manners is a sub-genre of the realist novel which deals with
aspects of behaviour, language, customs and values characteristic of a
particular class of people in a specific historical context. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novel_of_manners
·
A
novel that examines the customs and mores of a cultural group. The novels of
Jane Austen and Edith Wharton are widely considered novels of manners.
www.gale.cengage.com/free_resources/glossary/glossary_no.htm
·
A
novel that describes in detail the customs, behaviors, habits, and expectations
of a certain social group at a specific time and place. Usually these
conventions shape the behavior of the main characters, and sometimes even stifle
or repress them. ...
web.cn.edu/kwheeler/lit_terms_N.html
·
A
novel focusing on and describing social customs and habits of a particular
social group.
www.jerichoschools.org/hs/teachers/lfischer/apvocab.htm
·
work of fiction that re-creates a social world, conveying with finely detailed
observation the customs, values, and mores of a highly developed and complex
society
quizlet.com/830575/cotten-ap-literary-terms-flash-cards/
Definitions of
Comedy of manners on the Web:
·
The comedy of manners is a genre of play which satirizes the manners and
affectations of a social class, often represented by stock characters, such as
the miles gloriosus in ancient times, the fop and the rake during the
Restoration, or an old person pretending to be young. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comedy_of_manners
·
A
play about the manners and conventions of an aristocratic, highly sophisticated
society. The characters are usually types rather than individualized
personalities, and plot is less important than atmosphere. Such plays were an
important aspect of late seventeenth-century English Comedy. ...
www.gale.cengage.com/free_resources/glossary/glossary_bc.htm
·
Form of comic drama that became popular in
seventeenth-century
novella.mhhe.com/sites/0072872187/student_view0/glossary.html
·
A
variety of comedy concerned with the mores and manners of an artificial and
sophisticated segment of society.
www.fcsh.unl.pt/deps/linguas-culturas-e-literaturas/eina/docs/glossary.doc
Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing
Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer
Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The Rivals, School for Scandal
Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest
Philip Barry, The Philadelphia Story (1939)
Working Girl (1988; w. Kevin Wade, d. Mike Nichols)
Examples of Novels of Manners
Jane Austen’s novels: Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Emma 1815
Henry James, The American (1877), Daisy Miller (1878), The Europeans (1878), The Bostonians (1886)
Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence 1921
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby 1925
Structure: comedy or romantic comedy—social climbing and falling, conclusion in marriage
Subject matter descended from “Comedy of Manners”
Goldsmith, Sheridan’s School for Scandal in 18c, Oscar Wilde’s Importance of Being Earnest
Contemporary example of comedy of manners: Frazier
(affluent, educated, witty--classy but class uncertainty--if physical, graceful or finicky rather than gross or bumbling)
"manners" doesn't exactly mean same thing as etiquette, but more like behavior and how it fits with others and what it means
Passage to India p. 15 "To escape from the net and be back among manners and gestures that he knew!"
8 servant-master code
Subject: courtship, social interaction of leisure class, professionals, wannabes; social codes, reading and offering of signs
Characters test each other’s interest, honor, generosity, folly, irony
Misconceptions, false identities, blunders, connections
Purposes of studying A Passage to India as "novel of manners"
"Novels of manners" are often regarded among the "finest literature," but can be difficult to read
A Passage to India extends conventional “novel of manners” form in at least 2 ways:
cross-cultural
mystical union
+ gender: like James and Whitman, a gay / homosexual / queer author
Both intensely social and outside normal courtship
novel of manners
Types of novels (Virtual Salt)
Free Dictionary article on Forster & novel of manners
Comedy of Manners
Shakespeare, Love’s Labour’s Lost
Much Ado about Nothing
Moliere, Tartuffe
The Bourgeois Gentleman
esp. Restoration Comedy
Congreve, The Way of the World 1700
Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer 1773
Sheridan, The Rivals 1775
Wilde, The Importance of Being Ernest 1895
Barry, The Philadelphia Story 1939
preoccupied with codes of upper and middle classes
manners and conventions of an artificial, highly sophisticated society
satire against wannabes
satire
of aberrations of social behavior
misfits,
etc.
