Paul Salzman
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199261048
- eISBN:
- 9780191717482
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199261048.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, Women's Literature, 18th-century Literature
This concluding chapter considers the possibility of approaching early modern women's writing without falling into either a monolithic notion of fixed identity or, alternatively, an overwhelming ...
More
This concluding chapter considers the possibility of approaching early modern women's writing without falling into either a monolithic notion of fixed identity or, alternatively, an overwhelming sense of inchoate and inconnected texts. It questions whether early modern women's writing is simply a heuristic category. The answer varies depending on the context of both time and the nature of the writers, but it is certainly true to say that in the course of the 17th century more and more women saw themselves as ‘women writers’. As scholars try to unravel increasing manuscript material, early modern women's writing was proven to have a wide range of projected and actual readers, from immediate family members to powerful women.Less
This concluding chapter considers the possibility of approaching early modern women's writing without falling into either a monolithic notion of fixed identity or, alternatively, an overwhelming sense of inchoate and inconnected texts. It questions whether early modern women's writing is simply a heuristic category. The answer varies depending on the context of both time and the nature of the writers, but it is certainly true to say that in the course of the 17th century more and more women saw themselves as ‘women writers’. As scholars try to unravel increasing manuscript material, early modern women's writing was proven to have a wide range of projected and actual readers, from immediate family members to powerful women.
Helen Smith
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199651580
- eISBN:
- 9780191741654
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199651580.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
This chapter charts women's presence at the scene of writing, arguing for a flexible understanding of collaboration and co-writing in this period. Opening with an extended reading of John Donne's ‘A ...
More
This chapter charts women's presence at the scene of writing, arguing for a flexible understanding of collaboration and co-writing in this period. Opening with an extended reading of John Donne's ‘A valediction: of the booke’, the chapter contains four sections which explore the variety of women's work as copyists, translators, editors and co-writers, and their status as the sources of oral testimony. Through a careful analysis of prefatory rhetoric, alongside a variety of archival and textual sources, Smith argues that these activities, which modern critics frequently describe as secondary, derivative, and mechanical, possess both a material and a creative aspect, which is recognised as having a crucial originary power in contemporary accounts.Less
This chapter charts women's presence at the scene of writing, arguing for a flexible understanding of collaboration and co-writing in this period. Opening with an extended reading of John Donne's ‘A valediction: of the booke’, the chapter contains four sections which explore the variety of women's work as copyists, translators, editors and co-writers, and their status as the sources of oral testimony. Through a careful analysis of prefatory rhetoric, alongside a variety of archival and textual sources, Smith argues that these activities, which modern critics frequently describe as secondary, derivative, and mechanical, possess both a material and a creative aspect, which is recognised as having a crucial originary power in contemporary accounts.
Catriona Kelly
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198159643
- eISBN:
- 9780191673665
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198159643.003.0015
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This chapter discusses the changes Russian women writers experienced from the 1950s until the early 1990s. Although women were included in Soviet political developments, the definitions of ‘women's ...
More
This chapter discusses the changes Russian women writers experienced from the 1950s until the early 1990s. Although women were included in Soviet political developments, the definitions of ‘women's writing’ during this time were related to sentimental topics such as the family and love. By the arrival of the 1990s however, Russian women's writing slowly approached a new point of change in direction that led to the creation of new perspectives and new opportunities.Less
This chapter discusses the changes Russian women writers experienced from the 1950s until the early 1990s. Although women were included in Soviet political developments, the definitions of ‘women's writing’ during this time were related to sentimental topics such as the family and love. By the arrival of the 1990s however, Russian women's writing slowly approached a new point of change in direction that led to the creation of new perspectives and new opportunities.
Catriona Kelly
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198159643
- eISBN:
- 9780191673665
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198159643.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This chapter discusses the different changes that occurred during the late 19th century until the early 20th century in Russia. These changes gave Russian women writers more opportunities for ...
More
This chapter discusses the different changes that occurred during the late 19th century until the early 20th century in Russia. These changes gave Russian women writers more opportunities for literary output. However, these changes also took place against an enormous social upheaval. The roles of women in major public political campaigns were notable, and several women writers during this period were staunch feminists. The chapter also looks at the changes linked to the presence of women in the literary scene, and how Russian society viewed these female writers. The discussions presented in this chapter also raised the phenomenon of the diversity of women's writing during this period.Less
This chapter discusses the different changes that occurred during the late 19th century until the early 20th century in Russia. These changes gave Russian women writers more opportunities for literary output. However, these changes also took place against an enormous social upheaval. The roles of women in major public political campaigns were notable, and several women writers during this period were staunch feminists. The chapter also looks at the changes linked to the presence of women in the literary scene, and how Russian society viewed these female writers. The discussions presented in this chapter also raised the phenomenon of the diversity of women's writing during this period.
Dúnlaith Bird
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199644162
- eISBN:
- 9780199949984
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199644162.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This chapter discusses the role of the travelogue, both as a locus for the safely bound exotic Other, and as the potential conduit for hybrid constructions of identity. It introduces the central ...
More
This chapter discusses the role of the travelogue, both as a locus for the safely bound exotic Other, and as the potential conduit for hybrid constructions of identity. It introduces the central concept of vagabondage, the search for identity through motion in women’s travel writing from Olympe Audouard and Isabella Bird to Isabelle Eberhardt. The chapter establishes a composite basis of gender and postcolonial theory, creating a nuanced critique of Edward Said and Judith Butler. It gives a historical overview of the British and French colonial empires from 1850–1950 and their representations in popular culture. It also analyses the persistent structures of Orientalism and their impact on European gender roles and travel writing. A brief biography of the main women travel writers discussed and an outline of following chapters are also given.Less
This chapter discusses the role of the travelogue, both as a locus for the safely bound exotic Other, and as the potential conduit for hybrid constructions of identity. It introduces the central concept of vagabondage, the search for identity through motion in women’s travel writing from Olympe Audouard and Isabella Bird to Isabelle Eberhardt. The chapter establishes a composite basis of gender and postcolonial theory, creating a nuanced critique of Edward Said and Judith Butler. It gives a historical overview of the British and French colonial empires from 1850–1950 and their representations in popular culture. It also analyses the persistent structures of Orientalism and their impact on European gender roles and travel writing. A brief biography of the main women travel writers discussed and an outline of following chapters are also given.
Marie-Louise Coolahan
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199567652
- eISBN:
- 9780191722011
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199567652.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature, Women's Literature
This book examines writing in English, Irish, and Spanish by women living in Ireland and by Irish women living on the continent between the years 1574 and 1676. This was a tumultuous period of ...
More
This book examines writing in English, Irish, and Spanish by women living in Ireland and by Irish women living on the continent between the years 1574 and 1676. This was a tumultuous period of political, religious, and linguistic contestation that encompassed the key power‐struggles of early modern Ireland. This study brings to light the ways in which women contributed; they strove to be heard and to make sense of their situations, forging space for their voices in complex ways and engaging with native and new language‐traditions. The book investigates the genres in which women wrote: poetry, nuns' writing, petition‐letters, depositions, biography, and autobiography. It argues for a complex understanding of authorial agency that centres on the act of creating or composing a text, which does not necessarily equate with the physical act of writing. The Irish, English, and European contexts for women's production of texts are identified and assessed. The literary traditions and languages of the different communities living on the island are juxtaposed in order to show how identities were shaped and defined in relation to each other. The book elucidates the social, political, and economic imperatives for women's writing, examines the ways in which women characterized female composition, and describes an extensive range of cross‐cultural, multilingual activity.Less
This book examines writing in English, Irish, and Spanish by women living in Ireland and by Irish women living on the continent between the years 1574 and 1676. This was a tumultuous period of political, religious, and linguistic contestation that encompassed the key power‐struggles of early modern Ireland. This study brings to light the ways in which women contributed; they strove to be heard and to make sense of their situations, forging space for their voices in complex ways and engaging with native and new language‐traditions. The book investigates the genres in which women wrote: poetry, nuns' writing, petition‐letters, depositions, biography, and autobiography. It argues for a complex understanding of authorial agency that centres on the act of creating or composing a text, which does not necessarily equate with the physical act of writing. The Irish, English, and European contexts for women's production of texts are identified and assessed. The literary traditions and languages of the different communities living on the island are juxtaposed in order to show how identities were shaped and defined in relation to each other. The book elucidates the social, political, and economic imperatives for women's writing, examines the ways in which women characterized female composition, and describes an extensive range of cross‐cultural, multilingual activity.
MARYELLEN BIEDER
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198158868
- eISBN:
- 9780191673399
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198158868.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This chapter examines the reception of women's writing, the way in which they are read as conforming to or violating the contemporary construction of gender. The reclassification of women's writing ...
More
This chapter examines the reception of women's writing, the way in which they are read as conforming to or violating the contemporary construction of gender. The reclassification of women's writing from an implicitly inferior ‘not-male’ to an androgynous ‘manlike’ reaches beyond the obvious examples of the mid-century Getrudis Gómez de Avellaneda and the late-century Pardo Bazán to other women as well. This chapter also examines attempts by Pardo Bazán, Concepción Gimeno de Flaquer, and other women to renegotiate the separate spheres of gendered writing and to claim for some women the neutral status of poeta. Poetry is the only form of creative authorship that can be designated with a neutral term in Spanish, since the single word conflates the two genders and can thus serve to name either a female or a male poet.Less
This chapter examines the reception of women's writing, the way in which they are read as conforming to or violating the contemporary construction of gender. The reclassification of women's writing from an implicitly inferior ‘not-male’ to an androgynous ‘manlike’ reaches beyond the obvious examples of the mid-century Getrudis Gómez de Avellaneda and the late-century Pardo Bazán to other women as well. This chapter also examines attempts by Pardo Bazán, Concepción Gimeno de Flaquer, and other women to renegotiate the separate spheres of gendered writing and to claim for some women the neutral status of poeta. Poetry is the only form of creative authorship that can be designated with a neutral term in Spanish, since the single word conflates the two genders and can thus serve to name either a female or a male poet.
J. R. Watson
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198270027
- eISBN:
- 9780191600784
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019827002X.003.0016
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Literature
Discusses the woman writer, and hymn writing as an acceptable occupation for women; the character of this writing, and examples of it from Charlotte Elliott, Sarah Flower Adams, and Cecil Frances ...
More
Discusses the woman writer, and hymn writing as an acceptable occupation for women; the character of this writing, and examples of it from Charlotte Elliott, Sarah Flower Adams, and Cecil Frances Alexander; Frances Ridley Harvergal and her enthusiasm. Also talks about Dora Greenwell and the single woman; Anna Laetitia Waring; the Brontë sisters.; Christina Rossetti.Less
Discusses the woman writer, and hymn writing as an acceptable occupation for women; the character of this writing, and examples of it from Charlotte Elliott, Sarah Flower Adams, and Cecil Frances Alexander; Frances Ridley Harvergal and her enthusiasm. Also talks about Dora Greenwell and the single woman; Anna Laetitia Waring; the Brontë sisters.; Christina Rossetti.
Susannah Wilson
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199579358
- eISBN:
- 9780191595226
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199579358.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Prose (inc. letters, diaries), European Literature
This chapter sets the texts to be examined in subsequent chapters in their historical context, and argues that they form a tradition in the history of women's writing in France. A first section, ...
More
This chapter sets the texts to be examined in subsequent chapters in their historical context, and argues that they form a tradition in the history of women's writing in France. A first section, entitled ‘Psychiatric medicine and the incarceration of women’, examines the implications for women of the 1838 ‘loi des aliénés’ and some of the specific ways in which nineteenth‐century psychiatry was complicit in the oppression of women in French society. The second section considers the phenomenon of ‘les écrits des aliéné(e)s’, and compares and contrasts writings produced by men and women under asylum conditions. The third section considers the precedents set by literary study, which has given a voice to those who have been labelled insane by bringing obscure authors to light. The latter will be examined with particular reference to the theme of writing the experience of madness and the literary tradition of the nineteenth‐century ‘fou littéraire’.Less
This chapter sets the texts to be examined in subsequent chapters in their historical context, and argues that they form a tradition in the history of women's writing in France. A first section, entitled ‘Psychiatric medicine and the incarceration of women’, examines the implications for women of the 1838 ‘loi des aliénés’ and some of the specific ways in which nineteenth‐century psychiatry was complicit in the oppression of women in French society. The second section considers the phenomenon of ‘les écrits des aliéné(e)s’, and compares and contrasts writings produced by men and women under asylum conditions. The third section considers the precedents set by literary study, which has given a voice to those who have been labelled insane by bringing obscure authors to light. The latter will be examined with particular reference to the theme of writing the experience of madness and the literary tradition of the nineteenth‐century ‘fou littéraire’.
Beth Palmer
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199599110
- eISBN:
- 9780191725371
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199599110.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Women's Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This book explores the ways in which women writers utilized the powerful position of author-editor to perform conventions of gender and genre in the Victorian period. It examines Mary Elizabeth ...
More
This book explores the ways in which women writers utilized the powerful position of author-editor to perform conventions of gender and genre in the Victorian period. It examines Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Ellen Wood, and Florence Marryat's magazines (Belgravia, Argosy, and London Society respectively) alongside their sensation fiction to explore the mutually influential strategies of authorship and editorship. The relationship between sensation's success as a popular fiction genre and its serialization in the periodical press was not just complexly reciprocal but also self-conscious and performative. Publishing sensation in Victorian magazines offered women writers a set of discursive strategies that they could transfer outwards into other cultural discourses and performances. With these strategies they could explore, enact and re-work contemporary notions of female agency and autonomy as well as negotiate contemporary criticism. Combining authorship and editorship gave these middle-class women exceptional control over the shaping of fiction, its production, and its dissemination. By paying attention to the ways in which the sensation genre is rooted in the press network this book offers a new, broader context for the phenomenal success of works like Mary Elizabeth Braddon's Lady Audley's Secret and Ellen Wood's East Lynne. The book reaches back to the mid-nineteenth century to explore the press conditions initiated by figures like Charles Dickens and Mrs Beeton that facilitated the later success of these sensation writers. By looking forwards to the new woman writers of the 1890s the book draws conclusions regarding the legacies of sensational author-editorship in the Victorian press and beyond.Less
This book explores the ways in which women writers utilized the powerful position of author-editor to perform conventions of gender and genre in the Victorian period. It examines Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Ellen Wood, and Florence Marryat's magazines (Belgravia, Argosy, and London Society respectively) alongside their sensation fiction to explore the mutually influential strategies of authorship and editorship. The relationship between sensation's success as a popular fiction genre and its serialization in the periodical press was not just complexly reciprocal but also self-conscious and performative. Publishing sensation in Victorian magazines offered women writers a set of discursive strategies that they could transfer outwards into other cultural discourses and performances. With these strategies they could explore, enact and re-work contemporary notions of female agency and autonomy as well as negotiate contemporary criticism. Combining authorship and editorship gave these middle-class women exceptional control over the shaping of fiction, its production, and its dissemination. By paying attention to the ways in which the sensation genre is rooted in the press network this book offers a new, broader context for the phenomenal success of works like Mary Elizabeth Braddon's Lady Audley's Secret and Ellen Wood's East Lynne. The book reaches back to the mid-nineteenth century to explore the press conditions initiated by figures like Charles Dickens and Mrs Beeton that facilitated the later success of these sensation writers. By looking forwards to the new woman writers of the 1890s the book draws conclusions regarding the legacies of sensational author-editorship in the Victorian press and beyond.
Catriona Kelly
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198159643
- eISBN:
- 9780191673665
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198159643.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
Russian women's writing is now attracting enormous interest both in the West and in Russia itself. Written from a feminist perspective, this book combines a broad historical survey with close textual ...
More
Russian women's writing is now attracting enormous interest both in the West and in Russia itself. Written from a feminist perspective, this book combines a broad historical survey with close textual analysis. Sections on women's writing in the periods 1820–80, 1881–1917, 1917–54, and 1953–92 are followed by chapters on individual writers. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including rare literary journals and almanacs, the book shows familiar figures such as Akhmatova, Tsevtaeva, and Tolstaya in a new context and brings to light a colourful gallery of fascinating but neglected writers including Elena Gan, NadezhdaTeffi, Natalya Baranskaya, and Nina Sadur. The text is supported by quotations from the Russian, all accompanied by English translations.Less
Russian women's writing is now attracting enormous interest both in the West and in Russia itself. Written from a feminist perspective, this book combines a broad historical survey with close textual analysis. Sections on women's writing in the periods 1820–80, 1881–1917, 1917–54, and 1953–92 are followed by chapters on individual writers. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including rare literary journals and almanacs, the book shows familiar figures such as Akhmatova, Tsevtaeva, and Tolstaya in a new context and brings to light a colourful gallery of fascinating but neglected writers including Elena Gan, NadezhdaTeffi, Natalya Baranskaya, and Nina Sadur. The text is supported by quotations from the Russian, all accompanied by English translations.
Ruth Cruickshank
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199571758
- eISBN:
- 9780191721793
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199571758.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism, European Literature
This chapter assesses how Redonnet's fin de millénaire prose fictions represent market‐driven violence (physical and symbolic) and the mass media (press, television, cinema, and the Internet). It ...
More
This chapter assesses how Redonnet's fin de millénaire prose fictions represent market‐driven violence (physical and symbolic) and the mass media (press, television, cinema, and the Internet). It shows how they invite the questions of French co‐implication in atrocities, and, via Adorno, of how bearing witness to the Holocaust risks, as does Redonnet, co‐implication and self‐satisfied contemplation. Benjamin is brought to bear in the analysis of Redonnet's evocation of the critical potential inherent in the production and reproduction of works of art. Discussion of implicit critiques of the contemporary literary field and of écriture féminine lead to the examination of Redonnet's challenges to contemporary conceptions of postmodern barbarism (her description of Houellebecq), women, and women's writing. The chapter concludes by identifying how her narrative strategies of resistance do not achieve their aim of making a travesty of homogenized manipulations of crisis, but are nonetheless a critical work in progress.Less
This chapter assesses how Redonnet's fin de millénaire prose fictions represent market‐driven violence (physical and symbolic) and the mass media (press, television, cinema, and the Internet). It shows how they invite the questions of French co‐implication in atrocities, and, via Adorno, of how bearing witness to the Holocaust risks, as does Redonnet, co‐implication and self‐satisfied contemplation. Benjamin is brought to bear in the analysis of Redonnet's evocation of the critical potential inherent in the production and reproduction of works of art. Discussion of implicit critiques of the contemporary literary field and of écriture féminine lead to the examination of Redonnet's challenges to contemporary conceptions of postmodern barbarism (her description of Houellebecq), women, and women's writing. The chapter concludes by identifying how her narrative strategies of resistance do not achieve their aim of making a travesty of homogenized manipulations of crisis, but are nonetheless a critical work in progress.
Ruth Cruickshank
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199571758
- eISBN:
- 9780191721793
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199571758.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism, European Literature
Notorious for the affaire surrounding L'Inceste, Angot is discussed as contributor to, analyst, and symptom of the fin de millénaire aesthetics of crisis. This chapter assesses the extent to which ...
More
Notorious for the affaire surrounding L'Inceste, Angot is discussed as contributor to, analyst, and symptom of the fin de millénaire aesthetics of crisis. This chapter assesses the extent to which her fictions avoid collusion in their transgressive representations of media manipulation of traumas including incest, sexual abuse, relationship breakdown, and the Holocaust. It examines how Angot challenges homogenizing notions of women's writing and femininism, but shows how, arguably unintentionally, her fictions demonstrate the enduring need to precipitate turning points in an ostensibly postfeminist world. Narrative strategies simultaneously drawing on and bringing into question poststructuralism and psychoanalytical, media, and marketing tropes are identified. Discussing how Angot's fin de millénaire prose fictions outstrip autofiction, and can be read as a write to reply, the chapter shows how Angot raises urgent questions about the neutralization of trauma by the mass media and the role of the writer, cultural producer, and consumer.Less
Notorious for the affaire surrounding L'Inceste, Angot is discussed as contributor to, analyst, and symptom of the fin de millénaire aesthetics of crisis. This chapter assesses the extent to which her fictions avoid collusion in their transgressive representations of media manipulation of traumas including incest, sexual abuse, relationship breakdown, and the Holocaust. It examines how Angot challenges homogenizing notions of women's writing and femininism, but shows how, arguably unintentionally, her fictions demonstrate the enduring need to precipitate turning points in an ostensibly postfeminist world. Narrative strategies simultaneously drawing on and bringing into question poststructuralism and psychoanalytical, media, and marketing tropes are identified. Discussing how Angot's fin de millénaire prose fictions outstrip autofiction, and can be read as a write to reply, the chapter shows how Angot raises urgent questions about the neutralization of trauma by the mass media and the role of the writer, cultural producer, and consumer.
AILSA WALLACE
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199572113
- eISBN:
- 9780191721984
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199572113.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature, European Literature
This chapter concentrates on Zur Mühlen's autobiography, which represents a turning point between the committed socialism of her literature in different genres of the 1920s and the more nuanced ...
More
This chapter concentrates on Zur Mühlen's autobiography, which represents a turning point between the committed socialism of her literature in different genres of the 1920s and the more nuanced left-wing humanism of her later works. It contends that Ende und Anfang is more complex than a simple account of her childhood and early adult years. Ende und Anfang engages with and borrows from contemporary popular literature, but is influenced primarily by various autobiographical traditions and by popular travel writing. It operates under an explicitly socialist agenda and, as such, can be read in the tradition of Socialist autobiographies by workers and Party intellectuals. At the same time, Zur Mühlen's story of becoming a writer has parallels with those of other well-known women writers, and she continues to thematise gender specific issues, such as financial independence, the beauty ideal, sex, marriage and motherhood. However, these issues are largely of secondary importance to the story of her conversion to Socialism.Less
This chapter concentrates on Zur Mühlen's autobiography, which represents a turning point between the committed socialism of her literature in different genres of the 1920s and the more nuanced left-wing humanism of her later works. It contends that Ende und Anfang is more complex than a simple account of her childhood and early adult years. Ende und Anfang engages with and borrows from contemporary popular literature, but is influenced primarily by various autobiographical traditions and by popular travel writing. It operates under an explicitly socialist agenda and, as such, can be read in the tradition of Socialist autobiographies by workers and Party intellectuals. At the same time, Zur Mühlen's story of becoming a writer has parallels with those of other well-known women writers, and she continues to thematise gender specific issues, such as financial independence, the beauty ideal, sex, marriage and motherhood. However, these issues are largely of secondary importance to the story of her conversion to Socialism.
Ruth Cruickshank
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199571758
- eISBN:
- 9780191721793
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199571758.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism, European Literature
This integrated overview of political, social, theoretical, and literary aspects of crisis establishes the critical framework for analysing the fin de millénaire French cultural field and the four ...
More
This integrated overview of political, social, theoretical, and literary aspects of crisis establishes the critical framework for analysing the fin de millénaire French cultural field and the four writers. This chapter describes a ‘long twentieth century’ of crisis thinking, countering conventional distinctions between modernism and postmodernism; and the perception that postmodern perpetual crisis is culturally dominant. There is a sustained analysis of fin de millénaire thought (including Baudrillard, Bourdieu, Derrida, and Nora) and its contribution to debates about consumerism, globalization, and neoliberalism. A discussion of feminist thought announces the book's critical explorations of representations of women and discourses of misogyny. The fin de millénaire double bind and a substantial survey of the contemporary literary field considers the influence of the media and global market economics; examines commodifying labels including autofiction, ‘minimalist’, and ‘women's writing’; and whilst emphasizing heterogeneity, posits ‘returns to crisis’ in fin de millénaire French prose fiction.Less
This integrated overview of political, social, theoretical, and literary aspects of crisis establishes the critical framework for analysing the fin de millénaire French cultural field and the four writers. This chapter describes a ‘long twentieth century’ of crisis thinking, countering conventional distinctions between modernism and postmodernism; and the perception that postmodern perpetual crisis is culturally dominant. There is a sustained analysis of fin de millénaire thought (including Baudrillard, Bourdieu, Derrida, and Nora) and its contribution to debates about consumerism, globalization, and neoliberalism. A discussion of feminist thought announces the book's critical explorations of representations of women and discourses of misogyny. The fin de millénaire double bind and a substantial survey of the contemporary literary field considers the influence of the media and global market economics; examines commodifying labels including autofiction, ‘minimalist’, and ‘women's writing’; and whilst emphasizing heterogeneity, posits ‘returns to crisis’ in fin de millénaire French prose fiction.
Amaleena Damlé
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780748668212
- eISBN:
- 9781474400923
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748668212.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
The introduction explores the terrain of women’s writing in French over the course of the late twentieth century and into the new millennium. It locates the place of women’s writing on the ...
More
The introduction explores the terrain of women’s writing in French over the course of the late twentieth century and into the new millennium. It locates the place of women’s writing on the contemporary French literary scene, arguing for the ongoing fertility of the term in relation to contemporary feminist and postfeminist debates, and analysing the evolving relationship between body and text. It identifies an emphasis on the transformative becoming of the body in contemporary culture and begins to open out the possible intersections between feminist criticism, the philosophies of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari and authors Amélie Nothomb, Ananda Devi, Marie Darrieussecq and Nina Bouraoui.Less
The introduction explores the terrain of women’s writing in French over the course of the late twentieth century and into the new millennium. It locates the place of women’s writing on the contemporary French literary scene, arguing for the ongoing fertility of the term in relation to contemporary feminist and postfeminist debates, and analysing the evolving relationship between body and text. It identifies an emphasis on the transformative becoming of the body in contemporary culture and begins to open out the possible intersections between feminist criticism, the philosophies of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari and authors Amélie Nothomb, Ananda Devi, Marie Darrieussecq and Nina Bouraoui.
Isobel Grundy
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198187653
- eISBN:
- 9780191674730
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198187653.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
This book looks at Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's achievement as a vital figure in the women's literary tradition. Robert Halsband's book on her life, the sixth this century and published in 1956, was ...
More
This book looks at Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's achievement as a vital figure in the women's literary tradition. Robert Halsband's book on her life, the sixth this century and published in 1956, was the first to apply scholarly techniques to establishing the facts. The inaccurate accounts given before Halsband testify to Lady Mary's compelling interest as a woman who wrote, travelled, campaigned publicly for medical advance, gossiped, and was involved in high-profile literary quarrels. Knowledge of her life has made considerable gains since Halsband, as understanding of the issues involved in trying to move between the roles of proper lady and woman writer has increased enormously. This life fruitfully exploits the tension between literary history and feminist reading. This book highlights Montagu's adolescent longing for literary fame, her growing understanding of the implications of this for gender and class imperatives, the frustrations and concessions involved in her collaborations with male writers, the punitive responses of society, the gaps at every stage of her life between her ascertainable circumstances and her construction of herself in letters and other writings. The book situates those writings in relation to her own theorizing and her very wide reading in women's texts as well as men's. Finally, it looks at a range of contemporary and near-contemporary responses.Less
This book looks at Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's achievement as a vital figure in the women's literary tradition. Robert Halsband's book on her life, the sixth this century and published in 1956, was the first to apply scholarly techniques to establishing the facts. The inaccurate accounts given before Halsband testify to Lady Mary's compelling interest as a woman who wrote, travelled, campaigned publicly for medical advance, gossiped, and was involved in high-profile literary quarrels. Knowledge of her life has made considerable gains since Halsband, as understanding of the issues involved in trying to move between the roles of proper lady and woman writer has increased enormously. This life fruitfully exploits the tension between literary history and feminist reading. This book highlights Montagu's adolescent longing for literary fame, her growing understanding of the implications of this for gender and class imperatives, the frustrations and concessions involved in her collaborations with male writers, the punitive responses of society, the gaps at every stage of her life between her ascertainable circumstances and her construction of herself in letters and other writings. The book situates those writings in relation to her own theorizing and her very wide reading in women's texts as well as men's. Finally, it looks at a range of contemporary and near-contemporary responses.
Monica Germana
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748637645
- eISBN:
- 9780748652259
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748637645.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Women's Literature
This book considers four thematic areas of the supernatural – quests, dangerous women, doubles and ghosts – each explored in one of the four main chapters. Bringing together contemporary women's ...
More
This book considers four thematic areas of the supernatural – quests, dangerous women, doubles and ghosts – each explored in one of the four main chapters. Bringing together contemporary women's writing and the Scottish fantasy tradition, it investigates in-depth some previously neglected texts such as Ali Smith's Hotel World, Alice Thompson's Justine, Margaret Elphinstone's longer fiction, as well as offering readings of more popular texts including A.L. Kennedy's So I am glad, and Emma Tennant's The Bad Sister and Two Women of London. Underlying the broad scope of this survey are the links – both explicit and implicit – established between the examined texts and the Scottish supernatural tradition. Having established a connection with a distinctively Scottish canon, the author points to the ways in which the selected texts simultaneously break from past traditions and reveal points of departure through their exploration of otherness, as well as their engagement with feminist and postmodernist discourses in relation to the questions of identity and the interrogation of the real.Less
This book considers four thematic areas of the supernatural – quests, dangerous women, doubles and ghosts – each explored in one of the four main chapters. Bringing together contemporary women's writing and the Scottish fantasy tradition, it investigates in-depth some previously neglected texts such as Ali Smith's Hotel World, Alice Thompson's Justine, Margaret Elphinstone's longer fiction, as well as offering readings of more popular texts including A.L. Kennedy's So I am glad, and Emma Tennant's The Bad Sister and Two Women of London. Underlying the broad scope of this survey are the links – both explicit and implicit – established between the examined texts and the Scottish supernatural tradition. Having established a connection with a distinctively Scottish canon, the author points to the ways in which the selected texts simultaneously break from past traditions and reveal points of departure through their exploration of otherness, as well as their engagement with feminist and postmodernist discourses in relation to the questions of identity and the interrogation of the real.
Susan Jones
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198184485
- eISBN:
- 9780191674273
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198184485.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This chapter explores Conrad's late works in relation to an earlier popular form of women's writing: the sensation novel of the 1860s and 1870s. By comparing Conrad's final, unfinished novel ...
More
This chapter explores Conrad's late works in relation to an earlier popular form of women's writing: the sensation novel of the 1860s and 1870s. By comparing Conrad's final, unfinished novel Suspense, and the sensation fiction of Mary Elizabeth Braddon, particularly Lady Audley's Secret (1862), this chapter shows the extent to which Conrad was indebted to the methods of female sensationalism right up to the end of his life.Less
This chapter explores Conrad's late works in relation to an earlier popular form of women's writing: the sensation novel of the 1860s and 1870s. By comparing Conrad's final, unfinished novel Suspense, and the sensation fiction of Mary Elizabeth Braddon, particularly Lady Audley's Secret (1862), this chapter shows the extent to which Conrad was indebted to the methods of female sensationalism right up to the end of his life.
Waïl S Hassan
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199792061
- eISBN:
- 9780199919239
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199792061.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
The trajectory of Ahdaf Soueif’s fiction reflects her growing awareness of the politics of reception of Anglophone Arab women writers and her use of translation as a thematic and stylistic device to ...
More
The trajectory of Ahdaf Soueif’s fiction reflects her growing awareness of the politics of reception of Anglophone Arab women writers and her use of translation as a thematic and stylistic device to undermine colonial discourse.Less
The trajectory of Ahdaf Soueif’s fiction reflects her growing awareness of the politics of reception of Anglophone Arab women writers and her use of translation as a thematic and stylistic device to undermine colonial discourse.
