Literature & Literary Studies

Mid-century women's writing

Disrupting the public/private divide

by Melissa Dinsman, Megan Faragher, Ravenel Richardson

Description

The traditional narrative of the mid-century (1930s-60s) is that of a wave of expansion and constriction, with the swelling of economic and political freedoms for women in the 1930s, the cresting of women in the public sphere during the Second World War, and the resulting break as employment and political opportunities for women dwindled in the 1950s when men returned home from the front. But as the burgeoning field of interwar and mid-century women's writing has demonstrated, this narrative is in desperate need of re-examination. Mid-century women's writing: Disrupting the public/private divide aims to revivify studies of female writers, journalists, broadcasters, and public intellectuals living or working in Britain, or under British rule, during the mid-century while also complicating extant narratives about the divisions between domesticity and politics.

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Reviews

The mid-century (1930s-60s) was an era of seismic shifts for British women, including those living under British rule in the colonies, in both the public and private spheres. The traditional narrative of these years is that of a wave of expansion and constriction, with the swelling of economic and political freedoms for women in the 1930s, the cresting of women in the public sphere during the Second World War, and the resulting break as employment and political opportunities for women dwindled in the 1950s when men returned home from the front. But as the burgeoning field of interwar and mid-century women's writing has demonstrated, this narrative is in desperate need of re-examination. This book aims to revivify studies of female writers, journalists, broadcasters, and public intellectuals living or working in Britain, or under British rule, during the mid-century while also complicating extant narratives about the divisions between domesticity and politics. The essays in this collection explore how women represented the transformation of the quotidian - including the home, employment, family life, and religious participation - during the mid-century.

Author Biography

Melissa Dinsman is Associate Professor of English at York College, CUNY Megan Faragher is Professor of English at Wright State University-Lake Campus Ravenel Richardson is Director of Research Expansion and Development at Case Western Reserve University

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Bibliographic Information

  • Publisher Manchester University Press
  • Publication Date July 2024
  • Orginal LanguageEnglish
  • ISBN/Identifier 9781526169778 / 1526169770
  • Publication Country or regionUnited Kingdom
  • FormatPrint PDF
  • Pages264
  • ReadershipGeneral/trade; College/higher education; Professional and scholarly
  • Publish StatusPublished
  • Dimensions234 X 156 mm
  • Biblio NotesDerived from Proprietary 5799
  • Reference Code15267

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