At Home in the World - by Maria DiBattista & Deborah Epstein Nord

Book Synopsis

A bold literary history that says women's writing is defined less by domestic concerns than by an engagement with public life

In a bold and sweeping reevaluation of the past two centuries of women's writing, At Home in the World argues that this work has been defined less by domestic concerns than by an active engagement with the most pressing issues of public life: from class and religious divisions, slavery, warfare, and labor unrest to democracy, tyranny, globalism, and the clash of cultures. Maria DiBattista and Deborah Epstein Nord show that even the most seemingly traditional works by British, American, and other English-language women writers redefine the domestic sphere in ways that incorporate the concerns of public life. Exploring works by a wide range of writers, including canonical, neglected, and contemporary figures, this compelling and concise literary history uncovers the public concerns of women writers who ventured into ever-wider geographical, cultural, and political territories, forging new definitions of what it means to create a home in the world.

From the Back Cover

"An ambitious and engaging literary history, At Home in the World paints an exhilarating panorama of British, American, and postcolonial women writers' interventions in public debates on an array of important issues. With its clear, lively style, this magisterial account will be welcomed by scholars, critics, and discerning readers of writers from Jane Austen to Edwidge Danticat."--Christine Froula, Northwestern University

"Pointedly fresh, this is an excellent literary history with a provocative and revealing sweep. Arguing that women's writing since Mary Wollstonecraft and Jane Austen has been an adventure of escape from the domestic sphere, DiBattista and Nord provide an education in how women have shaped and reshaped the novel. At Home in the World deserves to have a wide audience."--Robert L. Caserio, Pennsylvania State University

Review Quotes

"Shortlisted for the 2018 Christian Gauss Award, Phi Beta Kappa Society"

"Winner of the 2018 PROSE Award in Literature, Association of American Publishers"

About the Author

Maria DiBattista is the Charles Barnwell Straut Class of 1923 Professor of English at Princeton University. Deborah Epstein Nord is the Woodrow Wilson Professor of Literature at Princeton University.