Subversive Discourse: The Cultural Production of Late Victorian Feminist Novels - Hardcover

Kranidis, Rita S.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312107390 ISBN 13: 9780312107390

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 1995

Synopsis

Kranidis's study is motivated by questions concerning notions of aesthetics and literary value as defined in the context of Late Victorian culture. By first refiguring the prominence of the feminist political agenda and the cultural construction of the 'New Woman', it seeks to examine how feminist, politically motivated authors sought to intrude upon and challenge aesthetic proscriptions that impacted on gender. The aesthetic/literary and social/political realms intersect consistently in the literature of the period, and this study points to the instances and ramifications of these intersections.

About this title

About the Author

Rita S. Kranidis is Assistant Professor of English at Radford University.

From the Back Cover

In the midst of political agitation and increased public visibility, late Victorian feminists turned to writing novels as a means of furthering their political cause without alienating readers. Subversive Discourse reevaluates this culturally significant literature that has long been considered sub-literary. An engaging investigation into the specific circumstances surrounding the production of late Victorian feminist novels, Subversive Discourse delves into the politics and ideologies feminist novels addressed and challenged. This study also considers how aesthetic ideologies served to contain and negate progressive literary agendas such as that of the feminists. Kranidis argues that the Realists appropriated feminist literary and social accomplishments and hence challenges the notion that the Realists were pro-feminist. The author outlines the character of late Victorian feminism, reactionary opposition to it, and the narrative and textual strategies devised by feminists to ensure their texts' publication in a conservative literary marketplace.

Edition details

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312107390
• ISBN 13: 9780312107390
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 158