1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910796417503321

Autore

George Sam, Dr.

Titolo

Botany, sexuality and women's writing, 1760-1830 : from modest shoot to forward plant / / Sam George

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Manchester, UK : , : Manchester University Press, , 2017

©2007

ISBN

1-5261-3017-3

Edizione

[Paperback edition.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (ix, 261 pages) : illustrations; digital file(s)

Disciplina

809.9355808209033

Soggetti

Botanical literature - Authorship - History - 18th century

Botanical literature - History and criticism

Plants, Sex in

Women botanists - History - 18th century

Botany in literature - History - 18th century

Literature

Literary Theory

LITERARY CRITICISM / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh`

Ireland

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

List of figures -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- 1. 'The Sweet Flowers that Smile in the Walk of Man': floral femininity and female education -- 2. 'Unveiling the mysteries of vegetation': botany and the feminine -- 3. Sex, class and order in Flora's army -- 4. Forward plants and wanton women: botany and sexual anxiety in the late eighteenth century -- 5. 'Botany in an English dress': British flora and the 'fair daughters of Albion' -- Conclusion -- Appendices: Botanical poems by women -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

In this fascinating study, Samantha George explores the cultivation of the female mind and the feminised discourse of botanical literature in eighteenth-century Britain. In particular, she discusses British women's engagement with the Swedish botanist, Carl Linnaeus, and his unsettling discovery of plant sexuality. Previously ignored primary texts



of an extraordinary nature are rescued from obscurity and assigned a proper place in the histories of science, eighteenth-century literature, and women's writing. The result is groundbreaking: the author explores nationality and sexuality debates in relation to botany and charts the appearance of a new literary stereotype, the sexually precocious female botanist. She uncovers an anonymous poem on Linnaean botany, handwritten in the eighteenth century, and subsequently traces the development of a new genre of women's writing - the botanical poem with scientific notes. The book is indispensable reading for all scholars of the eighteenth century, especially those interested in Romantic women's writing, or the relationship between literature and science.