{"product_id":"communities-of-care-the-social-ethics-of-victorian-fiction-paperback","title":"Communities of Care: The Social Ethics of Victorian Fiction - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eTalia Schaffer\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWhat we can learn about caregiving and community from the Victorian novel\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eCommunities of Care\u003c\/i\u003e, Talia Schaffer explores Victorian fictional representations of care communities, small voluntary groups that coalesce around someone in need. Drawing lessons from Victorian sociality, Schaffer proposes a theory of communal care and a mode of critical reading centered on an ethics of care. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn the Victorian era, medical science offered little hope for cure of illness or disability, and chronic invalidism and lengthy convalescences were common. Small communities might gather around afflicted individuals to minister to their needs and palliate their suffering. \u003ci\u003eCommunities of Care\u003c\/i\u003e examines these groups in the novels of Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Henry James, and Charlotte Yonge, and studies the relationships that they exemplify. How do carers become part of the community? How do they negotiate status? How do caring emotions develop? And what does it mean to think of care as an activity rather than a feeling? Contrasting the Victorian emphasis on community and social structure with modern individualism and interiority, Schaffer's sympathetic readings draw us closer to the worldview from which these novels emerged. Schaffer also considers the ways in which these models of carework could inform and improve practice in criticism, in teaching, and in our daily lives. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThrough the lens of care, Schaffer discovers a vital form of communal relationship in the Victorian novel. \u003ci\u003eCommunities of Care\u003c\/i\u003e also demonstrates that literary criticism done well is the best care that scholars can give to texts.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eTalia Schaffer \u003c\/b\u003eis professor of English at Queens College, City University of New York, and the Graduate Center, CUNY. She is the author of \u003ci\u003eRomance's Rival: Familiar Marriage in Victorian Fiction\u003c\/i\u003e; \u003ci\u003eNovel Craft: Victorian Domestic Handicraft and Nineteenth-Century Fiction\u003c\/i\u003e; and \u003ci\u003eThe Forgotten Female Aesthetes: Literary Culture in Late-Victorian England\u003c\/i\u003e. Twitter @taliaschaffer1\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 296\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.67 x 9.21 x 6.14 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e July 08, 2025\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52637464953139,"sku":"9780691271101","price":58.21,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0300\/5595\/6612\/files\/0-2ONjK9ZG9780691271101.webp?v=1762289573","url":"https:\/\/www.vysn.com\/products\/communities-of-care-the-social-ethics-of-victorian-fiction-paperback","provider":"VYSN","version":"1.0","type":"link"}