The "improper" feminine : the women's sensation novel and the new woman writing / Lyn Pykett.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Pykett, Lyn.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English fiction--Women authors--History and criticism.

English fiction.

Feminism and literature--Great Britain--History--19th century.

Feminism and literature.

Women and literature--Great Britain--History--19th century.

Women and literature.

English fiction--19th century--History and criticism.

Femininity in literature.

Fiction--Authorship--Sex differences.

Fiction.

Sensationalism in literature.

Sex role in literature.

Sex in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (249 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Routledge, 1992.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The women's sensation novel of the 1860's and the New Woman fiction of the 1890's were two major examples of a perceived feminine invasion of fiction which caused a critical furor in their day. Both genres, with their shocking, `fast' heroines, fired the popular imagination by putting female sexuality on the literary agenda and undermining the `proper feminine' ideal to which nineteenth-century women and fictional heroines were supposed to aspire. By exploring in impressive depth and breadth the material and discursive conditions in which these novels were produced, The `Improper'

Contents:

Cover; THE 'IMPROPER' FEMININE: The Women's Sensation Novel and the New Woman Writing; Copyright; Contents; Introductory note; Part I The 'Improper' Feminine; 1 Gender and writing, writing and gender; 2 The subject of Woman; 3 The subject of Woman and the subject of women's fiction; 4 Fiction and the feminine: a gendered critical discourse; 5 Fiction, the feminine and the sensation novel; 6 Representation and the feminine: engendering fiction in the 1890's; Part II The Sentimental and Sensational Sixties: The Limits of the Proper Feminine

7 Historicising genre (1): the cultural moment of the woman's sensation novel 8 Surveillance and control: women, the family and the law; 9 Spectating the Social Evil: fallen and other women; 10 Reviewing the subject of women: the sensation novel and the 'Girl of the Period'; 11 Historicising genre (2): sensation fiction, women's genres and popular narrative forms; 12 Mary Elizabeth Braddon: the secret histories of women; 13 Ellen Wood: secret skeletons in the family, and the spectacle of women's suffering; Part III Breaking the Bounds: The Improper Feminine and the Fiction of the New Woman

14 The New Woman 15 The New Woman writing and some marriage questions; 16 Writing difference differently; 17 Feeling, motherhood and True Womanhood; 18 Woman's 'affectability' and the literature of hysteria; 19 Writing women: writing woman; 20 New Woman: new writing; Conclusion: reading out women's writing; Notes; Works referred to; Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 215-224) and index.

ISBN:

0-415-86206-X

0-203-35920-8

1-134-94483-7

1-280-07187-7

9780203359204

OCLC:

252921589