Article Abstracts and Proposals

Thanks for the various illnesses Spring. Pollen count gets higher every year it seems like. Oh well, more time to read I suppose.

And read I did! I worked diligently with Christopher Lukasik's, "The Vanity of Physiognomy: Dissimulation and Discernment in Charles Brockden Brown's Ormond. Lukasik's insights in this essay proved useful in formulating a direction in which to take my paper.

Physiognomy, as a study, influenced many authors when it was in vogue. Physiognomy came into prominence because it offered a way in which people could judge someone elses' character based on their physical appearance, generally the face. Lukasik's article is an examination of the possible effects physiognomy had on Brown's writing. Particularly, it focused on, "how do you discern the character of an unknown person in the absence of established forms of distinction?"

Now, Lukasik's article generally sticks to how the two nefarious males are viewed within the text but it couldn't help but raise the question within me, "Well, what about the victims? What about their physical depictions construct their identity?" And that's when the idea really took off. So, I'm focusing my reading on how both Constantia and Sophia's identity are constructed based on their physical depictions. If their opponents are indiscernible, what then, makes them so easy to read? Lo and behold I have a topic. Hooray.

Full proposal and abstraction of article to come.