Odd women? Spinsters, lesbians and widows in British women's fiction, 1850s–1930s
Odd women? Spinsters, lesbians and widows in British women's fiction, 1850s–1930s
Cite
Abstract
Women outside marriage between 1850 and the Second World War were seen as abnormal, threatening, superfluous and incomplete, whilst also being hailed as ‘women of the future’. Before 1850 odd women were marginalised, minor characters, yet by the 1930s spinsters, lesbians and widows had become heroines. This book considers how Victorian and modernist women's writing challenged the heterosexual plot and reconfigured conceptualisations of public and private space in order to valorise female oddity. It offers queer readings of novels and stories by women writers, from Charlotte Bronte, Elisabeth Gaskell, Ella Hepworth Dixon and Netta Syrett to May Sinclair, Radclyffe Hall, Clemence Dane, Winifred Holtby and Virginia Woolf. This interdisciplinary study tracks diverse representations of the odd woman in fiction and autobiographical accounts in relation to the rise of feminism. It illuminates singleness in the context of the suffrage campaign, women's work, sexual inversion and birth control as well as assessing the impact of the First World War. It draws on advice literature, medical texts, feminist polemic and articles from the new women's magazines. Developing debates within queer theory about gender non-conformity, heteronormativity and relationships between women, this genealogy of the odd woman shows how new conceptualisations of female singleness and lesbianism troubled, and ultimately transformed, social norms.
-
Front Matter
-
Introduction
-
1
Female redundancy, widowhood and the mid-Victorian heroine
-
2
Bachelor girls, mistresses and the New Woman heroine
-
3
Spinster heroines, aunts and widowed mothers, 1910–39
-
4
The misfit lesbian heroine of inter-war fiction
-
5
Professional spinsters, older women and widowed heroines in the 1930s
- Conclusion
-
End Matter
Sign in
Get help with accessPersonal account
- Sign in with email/username & password
- Get email alerts
- Save searches
- Purchase content
- Activate your purchase/trial code
Institutional access
- Sign in through your institution
- Sign in with a library card Sign in with username/password Recommend to your librarian
Institutional account management
Sign in as administratorPurchase
Our books are available by subscription or purchase to libraries and institutions.
Purchasing informationMonth: | Total Views: |
---|---|
October 2022 | 1 |
October 2022 | 2 |
November 2022 | 2 |
December 2022 | 3 |
December 2022 | 3 |
January 2023 | 2 |
January 2023 | 2 |
February 2023 | 6 |
February 2023 | 2 |
February 2023 | 2 |
February 2023 | 6 |
February 2023 | 7 |
February 2023 | 3 |
February 2023 | 2 |
March 2023 | 1 |
March 2023 | 1 |
March 2023 | 1 |
March 2023 | 1 |
April 2023 | 2 |
April 2023 | 3 |
April 2023 | 4 |
April 2023 | 7 |
May 2023 | 1 |
May 2023 | 2 |
May 2023 | 1 |
May 2023 | 4 |
May 2023 | 3 |
June 2023 | 5 |
June 2023 | 2 |
June 2023 | 2 |
June 2023 | 2 |
June 2023 | 2 |
June 2023 | 3 |
June 2023 | 2 |
June 2023 | 2 |
June 2023 | 3 |
June 2023 | 2 |
June 2023 | 5 |
July 2023 | 1 |
July 2023 | 1 |
September 2023 | 1 |
September 2023 | 1 |
October 2023 | 2 |
October 2023 | 1 |
October 2023 | 1 |
October 2023 | 3 |
October 2023 | 4 |
October 2023 | 3 |
October 2023 | 3 |
November 2023 | 1 |
November 2023 | 5 |
November 2023 | 1 |
December 2023 | 1 |
December 2023 | 1 |
December 2023 | 1 |
January 2024 | 2 |
January 2024 | 2 |
February 2024 | 2 |
March 2024 | 11 |
March 2024 | 3 |
March 2024 | 1 |
March 2024 | 1 |
Get help with access
Institutional access
Access to content on Oxford Academic is often provided through institutional subscriptions and purchases. If you are a member of an institution with an active account, you may be able to access content in one of the following ways:
IP based access
Typically, access is provided across an institutional network to a range of IP addresses. This authentication occurs automatically, and it is not possible to sign out of an IP authenticated account.
Sign in through your institution
Choose this option to get remote access when outside your institution. Shibboleth/Open Athens technology is used to provide single sign-on between your institution’s website and Oxford Academic.
If your institution is not listed or you cannot sign in to your institution’s website, please contact your librarian or administrator.
Sign in with a library card
Enter your library card number to sign in. If you cannot sign in, please contact your librarian.
Society Members
Society member access to a journal is achieved in one of the following ways:
Sign in through society site
Many societies offer single sign-on between the society website and Oxford Academic. If you see ‘Sign in through society site’ in the sign in pane within a journal:
If you do not have a society account or have forgotten your username or password, please contact your society.
Sign in using a personal account
Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members. See below.
Personal account
A personal account can be used to get email alerts, save searches, purchase content, and activate subscriptions.
Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members.
Viewing your signed in accounts
Click the account icon in the top right to:
Signed in but can't access content
Oxford Academic is home to a wide variety of products. The institutional subscription may not cover the content that you are trying to access. If you believe you should have access to that content, please contact your librarian.
Institutional account management
For librarians and administrators, your personal account also provides access to institutional account management. Here you will find options to view and activate subscriptions, manage institutional settings and access options, access usage statistics, and more.