Refashioning the Domestic Novel: Literary Form and Fanny Fern’s Biopolitical Imagination in Ruth Hall

Abstract

Drawing upon the Nancy Armstrong and Leonard Tennenhouse (2008, 2018) explanation of the form of early American novels, Emily Steinlight's (2018) concept of "demographic surplus" and Michel Foucault's (1978Foucault's ( /2007 concept of "population" and "mechanisms of security," this paper seeks to extend the discussion of the importance of the presence of the population in Ruth Hall and Fanny Fern's (1855/1997) imagination of a form of government suitable for mid-nineteenth century America. By doing so, I suggest that Ruth Hall can be considered a novel that shares the legacy of the literary tradition that was once believed to be exclusive to male writers.