Publication Date

2024

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

May, Brian

Degree Name

Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy)

Legacy Department

Department of English

Abstract

My dissertation explores the rise of the women’s middlebrow novel in interwar Britain and the use of unmarried women as heroines. During a time of extreme gender imbalance, female middlebrow authors often took up spinsters, who were treated as pitiable and superfluous by both the literary establishment and the press, and turned them into everywomen who could speak directly to the changing and uncertain times their readers were struggling with.

Although the middlebrow was more of a loose grouping of authors than an intentional artistic or intellectual movement, by surveying books under this umbrella that focused on unmarried women and their unifying elements, such as humor, influences, and general ethos, I show that the books made up a cohesive body of work. These novels focused on how women could live their lives in a world where early marriage and motherhood were unlikely options. I show that unlike the didactic novels of the past, the middlebrow woman’s novel did not attempt to force a rigid and unattainable ethical construct onto their readers, but instead instructed readers in the class markers that would help them to move easily between the classes, while encouraging them to assemble an internal set of standards by which to judge the world around them, one built on the constants of human kindness, mercy, and humor, rather than outward shows of piety or social capital.

My work shows how by featuring spinsters, women on the very edge of British society, as their heroines, they were able to explore the difficulties of womanhood in interwar society, while empathizing with their readership. The spinster being the most looked down upon group of women in England assured that, for readers struggling in a gender-conscious society, their heroine would understand their own struggles. I show how these heroines were constructed to both comfort their readers, while simultaneously showing the freedom and greater social movement that can be experienced by the outcast.

Extent

223 pages

Language

en

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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