Communities of Care: The Social Ethics of Victorian Fiction

by Talia Schaffer

What we can learn about caregiving and community from the Victorian novelIn Communities of Care, 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.In 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. Communities of Care 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.Through the lens of care, Schaffer discovers a vital form of communal relationship in the Victorian novel. Communities of Care also demonstrates that literary criticism done well is the best care that scholars can give to texts.

287 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 14, 2021

Reviews

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't overstate how much I admire and love this book, which was tremendously helpful for my own research on what at first blush seems a totally different topic: Harry Potter and resistance. Schaffer's work with care ethics should be helpful to anyone interested in applying concepts of care ethics to, well, any topic. She explains the concepts beautifully and provides excellent sources.

On top of that, I was inspired by the tone and style of the book, which manages to maintain scholarly rigor while remaining engaging. The book has the kind of warmth one might hope from a book about caring--but can hardly count on. I confess to trying to imitate that quality, though I doubt I succeeded.

I heartily recommend this book to anyone interested in the ethics of care, in Victorian literature, and also in being a more caring teacher and academic colleague.