What was a central and repeated motif in the new domestic fiction of the mid-eighteenth century, as seen in novels like Henry Fielding's Amelia?
The celebration of traditional masculine aggression and physicality.
The exploration of the supernatural and the unconscious mind.
The threat posed by an aristocratic villain to middle-class respectability.
The comic adventures of roguish heroes in the picaresque style.
Henry Mackenzie's The Man of Feeling exemplifies the "cult of sensibility." What is the primary characteristic of the hero in such novels?
His rebellious nature and defiance of social conventions.
His focus on financial success in a commercial society.
His gentleness, vulnerability, and intense sympathy for others.
His coarse humour and brutal practicality.
How can we characterize the relationship between sentimental/Gothic novels and the "real world"?
They offer a direct and complex engagement with the social reality of the period.
They were considered the only form of novel that accurately depicted middle-class life.
They retreat from the real world into moral simplifications or the fantastic, but can engage with real issues indirectly.
They provide accurate historical records of events like the French Revolution.
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is distinctive because it:
Focuses on characters excluded from society's dominant discourse and pushes Gothic conventions to their limits.
Retreats into the simplifications of a straightforward moral stance.
Primarily serves as a direct political allegory for the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution.
Is a typical example of the 'flight and pursuit' pattern with no deeper meaning.
A key difference between major mid-18th century novels (like those of Fielding) and later sentimental novels (like The Man of Feeling) is that the sentimental novels:
Were written exclusively by female authors for a female audience.
Are more complex in their engagement between the self and social reality.
Are less substantial because they take their eye off the world as it really is.
Feature more aggressive and physically coarse male protagonists.