Overview
Offers a comprehensive and transatlantic perspective on the dynamics of the single woman within the context of literary history and the history of gender
Connects the discussion of single women to larger contexts about the divisions between middlebrow and modernist literary culture
Discusses a diverse selection of renowned and forgotten writers, such as Djuna Barnes, Rosamond Lehmann, Ngaio Marsh, and Eliot Bliss
Access this book
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Other ways to access
Table of contents (6 chapters)
-
Front Matter
-
Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
This book situates the single woman within the evolving landscape of modernity, examining how she negotiated rural and urban worlds, explored domestic and bohemian roles, and traversed public and private spheres. In the modern era, the single woman was both celebrated and derided for refusing to conform to societal expectations regarding femininity and sexuality. The different versions of single women presented in cultural narratives of this period—including the old maid, odd woman, New Woman, spinster, and flapper—were all sexually suspicious. The single woman, however, was really an amorphous figure who defied straightforward categorization. Emma Sterry explores depictions of such single women in transatlantic women’s fiction of the 1920s to 1940s. Including a diverse selection of renowned and forgotten writers, such as Djuna Barnes, Rosamond Lehmann, Ngaio Marsh, and Eliot Bliss, this book argues that the single woman embodies the tensions between tradition and progress in both middlebrow and modernist literary culture.
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Emma Sterry studied at Cardiff University and the University of Strathclyde, UK, before becoming an independent scholar. She is fascinated with the cultural significance of the single woman, but also has research interests in twentieth-century literary culture, modernity, and women’s history more generally.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Single Woman, Modernity, and Literary Culture
Book Subtitle: Women’s Fiction from the 1920s to the 1940s
Authors: Emma Sterry
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40829-3
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-40828-6Published: 05 July 2017
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-82195-5Published: 28 July 2018
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-40829-3Published: 22 June 2017
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: VII, 198
Topics: Twentieth-Century Literature, Fiction, European Literature, North American Literature, British and Irish Literature