Collapsing the courtship plot: the challenge to mid-Victorian romance in New Woman short stories of the 1890s

The New Woman writing of the 1890s grappled with the legacy of mid-nineteenth century constructions of romance and gender ideology. In their bid to promote a new vision of heterosexual relations between the sexes, New Woman writers often explicitly engaged with earlier ideals of Separate Spheres and...

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Main Author:	Anne-Marie Beller
Format:	Default Article
Published:	2020
Subjects:	Mona Caird Ella D’Arcy Ella Hepworth Dixon New Woman Short story Victorian courtship plot
Online Access:	https://hdl.handle.net/2134/13210772.v1
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id	rr-article-13210772
record_format	Figshare
spelling	rr-article-132107722020-10-25T00:00:00Z Collapsing the courtship plot: the challenge to mid-Victorian romance in New Woman short stories of the 1890s Anne-Marie Beller (1256886) Mona Caird Ella D’Arcy Ella Hepworth Dixon New Woman Short story Victorian courtship plot <div>The New Woman writing of the 1890s grappled with the legacy of mid-nineteenth century constructions of romance and gender ideology. In their bid to promote a new vision of heterosexual relations between the sexes, New Woman writers often explicitly engaged with earlier ideals of Separate Spheres and the “Angel in the House.” The short story provided an ideal form for exploring these issues, freeing writers from the generic conventions of the traditional three-volume novel. This article examines the ways in which three women writers of the 1890s attempted to rewrite the script of mid-Victorian courtship through the short story genre. In different, but related ways, Mona Caird’s “The Yellow Drawing Room,” Ella D’Arcy’s “The Pleasure Pilgrim” and Ella Hepworth Dixon’s “One Doubtful Hour” all offer a challenge to the doctrine of separate spheres. Yet, while each of these texts critique what they present as outmoded views of woman’s sphere and nature, they also articulate the difficulties experienced by both genders in imagining an evolved and improved model of sexual relations. These short stories represent the collapse in New Woman fiction of the traditional “courtship plot” through a failure to re-imagine and re-map the mid-Victorian gender ideology they seek to dismantle.</div><div><br></div> 2020-10-25T00:00:00Z Text Journal contribution 2134/13210772.v1 https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Collapsing_the_courtship_plot_the_challenge_to_mid-Victorian_romance_in_New_Woman_short_stories_of_the_1890s/13210772 CC BY 4.0
institution	Loughborough University
collection	Figshare
topic	Mona Caird Ella D’Arcy Ella Hepworth Dixon New Woman Short story Victorian courtship plot
spellingShingle	Mona Caird Ella D’Arcy Ella Hepworth Dixon New Woman Short story Victorian courtship plot Anne-Marie Beller Collapsing the courtship plot: the challenge to mid-Victorian romance in New Woman short stories of the 1890s
description	The New Woman writing of the 1890s grappled with the legacy of mid-nineteenth century constructions of romance and gender ideology. In their bid to promote a new vision of heterosexual relations between the sexes, New Woman writers often explicitly engaged with earlier ideals of Separate Spheres and the “Angel in the House.” The short story provided an ideal form for exploring these issues, freeing writers from the generic conventions of the traditional three-volume novel. This article examines the ways in which three women writers of the 1890s attempted to rewrite the script of mid-Victorian courtship through the short story genre. In different, but related ways, Mona Caird’s “The Yellow Drawing Room,” Ella D’Arcy’s “The Pleasure Pilgrim” and Ella Hepworth Dixon’s “One Doubtful Hour” all offer a challenge to the doctrine of separate spheres. Yet, while each of these texts critique what they present as outmoded views of woman’s sphere and nature, they also articulate the difficulties experienced by both genders in imagining an evolved and improved model of sexual relations. These short stories represent the collapse in New Woman fiction of the traditional “courtship plot” through a failure to re-imagine and re-map the mid-Victorian gender ideology they seek to dismantle.
format	Default Article
author	Anne-Marie Beller
author_facet	Anne-Marie Beller
author_sort	Anne-Marie Beller (1256886)
title	Collapsing the courtship plot: the challenge to mid-Victorian romance in New Woman short stories of the 1890s
title_short	Collapsing the courtship plot: the challenge to mid-Victorian romance in New Woman short stories of the 1890s
title_full	Collapsing the courtship plot: the challenge to mid-Victorian romance in New Woman short stories of the 1890s
title_fullStr	Collapsing the courtship plot: the challenge to mid-Victorian romance in New Woman short stories of the 1890s
title_full_unstemmed	Collapsing the courtship plot: the challenge to mid-Victorian romance in New Woman short stories of the 1890s
title_sort	collapsing the courtship plot: the challenge to mid-victorian romance in new woman short stories of the 1890s
publishDate	2020
url	https://hdl.handle.net/2134/13210772.v1
_version_	1797459474398576640

Collapsing the courtship plot: the challenge to mid-Victorian romance in New Woman short stories of the 1890s

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