Disrupted Idylls: Nature, Equality, and the Feminine in Sentimentalist Russian Women's Writing (Mariia Pospelova, Mariia Bolotnikova, and Anna Naumova). By Ursula Stohler. Trans. Emily Lygo. Slavische Literaturen: Texte und Abhandlungen 47. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Academic Research, 2016. 357 pp. Appendix. Bibliography. Index. $90.00, hard bound.

This chapter picks up and extends arguments advanced earlier in the book regarding the status of women’s writing and criticism during the years of modernism’s cultural ascendancy and academic institutionalisation. In the contexts of (1) a newly configured ‘University English’ which took an authoritative new role in the cultural field against an earlier belle-lettres tradition, and (2) the unprecedented prestige of middlebrow fiction in the 1930s, the chapter explores how Time and Tide navigated increasing tensions between ‘highbrow’ and ‘middlebrow’ spheres and succeeded in straddling both. First the chapter discusses the introduction in 1927 of a new ‘Miscellany’ section of the paper – home to E. M. Delafield’s popular serial ‘The Diary of a Provincial Lady’ – and argues that these columns created and legitimised a place for the ‘feminine middlebrow’ and amateur writer as the periodical increased its orientation towards the highbrow sphere. Second, with reference to the appointment of Time and Tide’s first two literary editors, the chapter discusses how the periodical negotiated a widening gap in this period between intellectual and general readers, and between amateur and professional modes of criticism.

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The ‘Feminine Pen’ and the Imagination of National Tradition: Russian Women's Writing, 1820–1880

A History of Russian Women's Writing 1820–1992 ◽

10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198159643.003.0002 ◽

1998 ◽

pp. 19-78

Author(s):

Catriona Kelly

Keyword(s):

Women's Writing ◽

National Tradition ◽

The Feminine ◽

Women’S Writing

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Hilary Mantel: Embodying Thomas Cromwell and Redefining Historical Fiction through ‘Women’s Writing’

10.31235/osf.io/3pzfu ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies ◽

Alaa Alghamdi

Keyword(s):

Historical Fiction ◽

Women's Writing ◽

Julia Kristeva ◽

Multifaceted Approach ◽

The Feminine ◽

Women’S Writing ◽

Positive Light

Hilary Mantel's Tudor novels, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, have been credited with rehabilitating the historical fiction genre with their vivid portrayal of life in King Henry's court, through the eyes of Thomas Cromwell. Mantel has received praise for her depiction of Cromwell, but also endured criticism for portraying him in an overly positive light. This paper examines the role of Mantel’s work and depiction of Cromwell in the evolution and potential re-framing of the historical fiction genre. It seeks to achieve four things: to assess the compelling nature of her fiction, to situate her depiction of Cromwell in opposition to other depictions, to highlight her literary approach, and to contextualise Mantel’s writing within ‘women’s writing’. Through this multifaceted approach it is conclusively established that although Mantel’s narratives are situated within a female-dominated genre, they are told from a masculine perspective and gaze. Nonetheless, they still hold a significant subtext suggestive of the ‘feminine’. This paper thereby reinforces the argument of feminist critic Julia Kristeva and shows Hilary Mantel and her ‘embodied’ depiction of Cromwell in a light previously unseen, holding merit for the genre of historical fiction as a whole.

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Reclamation from Absence? Luce Irigaray and Women in the History of Philosophy

Hypatia ◽

10.1111/j.1527-2001.2012.01301.x ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 28 (3) ◽

pp. 483-498

Author(s):

Sarah Tyson

Keyword(s):

Women's Writing ◽

History Of Philosophy ◽

Not Given ◽

Luce Irigaray ◽

Feminine Subjectivity ◽

The Feminine ◽

History Of ◽

Reclamation Project ◽

Difficult Cases ◽

Women’S Writing

Luce Irigaray's work does not present an obvious resource for projects seeking to reclaim women in the history of philosophy. Indeed, many authors introduce their reclamation project with an argument against conceptions, attributed to Irigaray or “French feminists” more generally, that the feminine is the excluded other of discourse. These authors claim that if the feminine is the excluded other of discourse, then we must conclude that even if women have written philosophy they have not given voice to feminine subjectivity; therefore, reclamation is a futile project. In this essay, I argue against such conclusions. Rather, I argue, Irigaray's work requires that philosophy be transformed through the reclamation of women's writing. She gives us a method of reclamation for the most difficult cases: those in which we have no record of women's writing. Irigaray offers this method through an engagement with the character of Diotima in Plato's Symposium. The method Irigaray demonstrates is reclamation as love.

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