Abstract

_The Regime of the Brother_ is one of the first attempts to challenge modernity on its own terms. Using the work of Lacan, Kristeva and Freud, Juliet MacCannell confronts the failure of modernity to bring about the social equality promised by the Enlightenment. On the verge of its destruction, the Patriarchy has reshaped itself into a new, and often more oppressive regime: that of the Brother. Examining a range of literary and social texts - from Rousseau's _Confessions_ to Richardson's _Clarissa_ and from Stendhal's _De L'Amour_ to James's _What Maisie Knew_ and Jean Rhys's _Wide Sargasso Sea_ - MacCannell illustrates a history of the suppression of women, revealing the potential for a specifically feminine alternative.