Confinement And Resistance: Spatial Discourses And Female Empowerment In Four Novels By Daniel Defoe And Samuel Richardson

Moll Flanders and Roxana by Daniel Defoe(1660-1731),and Pamela and Clarissa by Samuel Richardson(1689-1761),have focused on the life stories of the eponymous heroines.Using Henri Lefebvre's analysis of the production of space and his conceptual triad of social space,the present dissertation examines how female characters in these novels(re)write spatial discourses that empower themselves against patriarchal confinement and constraint.It argues that space provides both the means for men to control and regulate women and possibility for women to subvert male dominance and displace male subjectivity.Departing from previous studies of space in these novels which have treated space mostly as the background where events merely happen or as passively defined by the characters,and which have discussed the active role of space only in certain scenes and sections of the novels,the present dissertation provides a more detailed and inclusive discussion of the way space participates in human activities and influences the development of events.Lefebvre's theory of the production of social space and his conceptual triad of the dimensions spatial meaning-the conceived,the perceived,and the lived-serves as the theoretical perspective through which this dissertation delineates the interrelation between the contesting meanings producing and produced by a particular space.The present study shows that these novels exemplify,on the one hand,the way the spaces of the eighteenth century are produced by patriarchal ideology and used by men to control and regulate women,and,on the other hand,how space also enables women to resist male dominance and to construct potentially subversive and empowering discourses.Eighteenth-century spatial configurations are produced by and in the meantime produce patriarchal ideology which renders women passive objects confined by space(and body)and defined by male desire and power.Firstly,women are expected or forced to conform to patriarchal conceived and perceived spaces because they are largely deprived of the right to possess or inherit space and because they lack knowledge of public spaces.This lack of space submits women to male dominance over space in the form of confinement,expulsion,and coercion.Secondly,women are constrained by their bodily space in the sense that the body is also an ideologically inscribed space that is subjected to patriarchal construction.It is at once a corporeal fact that inhibits female activities and a space defined by men in that the meanings of female bodily spaces are often interpreted and imposed by men.Female resistance and subversion of male control can be achieved by constructing spatial discourse of their own.Firstly,space can be used to confront time in that travelling in space is a way to erase the ill influence of the past and to acquire new identities,redemption,and reconciliation with the past.Secondly,women can employ spatial strategies to redefine spaces against(male)authoritative inscriptions and construct lived spaces for their own purposes.The spatial strategies often employed by the female characters include projecting their minds onto space,using space as a means of expression,and pretending to collude with male conceived spaces while appropriating the perceived spaces for their own exploitation.Bringing the three dimensions of social space into dynamic interaction,these women construct lived spaces of their own that allow them to achieve independence and empowerment.The body is also a space for resistance.On the first level,dress,as an extension of bodily space,is a means of concealment and identity performance,and spaces for expressing virtue.Secondly,the sentimental body,its perceived symptoms being mainly bodily gestures,movements,and facial expressions,can be an unintentional female empowerment that exerts effective influence over men.Thirdly,an abject bodily space which women produce may invoke horror in the male subject and allow women to launch a resistance against attempts by men to inscribe and control their bodies.The immovable fainted body assimilates a corpse that threatens the construction of a male subject as temporal and as the mind,by reminding him of his mortality and corporeality.Similarly,the body of sexual difference(un)marks the differences by which man constructs his subject position.The anorexic body and the body of the prostitutes are socially abject because they disrupt and threaten established order.The anorexic body refuses to sustain itself to participate in patriarchal social-economic exchange while prostitutes abject their bodies for economic empowerment.The four novels could be read as stories of achieving resistance and empowerment through exploiting and interacting with space.