Digression as Narrative Form: Ambivalence and Female Mobility in Frances Burney’s The Wanderer

초록

Despite the extensive effort Frances Burney devoted to the composition of her last novel, The Wanderer; or, Female Difficulties has not received much critical attention. Whereas critics often attribute such a negative reception of the novel to its extensive length and narrative digressions, I argue it is these features that enable Burney to engage in a more complex discussion of female mobility, a theme she began examining in her first novel Evelina. If she employs Evelina’s forays into London’s polite society to conduct a preliminary examination of the possibilities and dangers that accompany her movements, I assert that Burney revisits this theme on a larger scale in The Wanderer by placing her female protagonist Juliet into a world of political upheaval. In addition to examining how Burney represents Juliet as a more mature and drastic version of Evelina, this article explores the ways in which she also cautiously affirms female mobility despite stressing the enforced nature of Juliet’s wanderings. By demonstrating that her movements not only function as a means of resistance and economic autonomy, but also enable her to strengthen her mental fortitude, I suggest that the novel can also be read as a narrative whereby Burney’s nameless female wanderer reclaims her identity and self-command. In examining how Burney employs Juliet’s vacillating narrative and the novel’s digressive subplots to examine the issues of women’s oppression, mobility, and autonomy from multiple perspectives, I argue that Burney presents a more nuanced, albeit more sober, engagement with the themes she began exploring in Evelina, thereby demonstrating The Wanderer’s valuable contribution to her literary oeuvre.

키워드