The Routledge Companion to Literature and Feminism

The Routledge Companion to Literature and Feminism brings unique literary, critical, and historical perspectives to the relationship between women’s writing and women’s rights in British contexts from the late eighteenth century to the present. Thematically organised around five central concepts―Rights, Networks, Bodies, Production, and Activism―the Companion tracks vital questions and debates, offering fresh perspectives on changing priorities and enduring continuities in relation to women’s ongoing struggle for liberty and equality. This groundbreaking collection brings into focus the historical and cultural conditions which have shaped the formation of British literary feminisms, including the legacies of slavery, colonialism, and Empire. From the political novel of the 1790s to early twentieth-century suffrage theatre and contemporary ecofeminism, and from the mid-Victorian antislavery movement to anti-fascist activism in the 1930s and working-class women’s writing groups in the 1980s, this book testifies to the diverse and dynamic character of the relationship between literature and feminism. Featuring contributions from leading feminist scholars, the Companion offers new insights into the crucial role played by women’s literary production in the evolving history of women’s rights discourses, feminist activism, and movements for gender equality. It will appeal to students and scholars in the fields of women’s writing, British literature, cultural history, and gender and feminist studies. The Routledge Companion to Literature and Feminism brings unique literary, critical and historical perspectives to the relationship between women’s writing and women’s rights in British contexts from the late eighteenth century to the present. Cover 1 Endrosements Page 2 Half Title 4 Series Page 5 Title Page 6 Copyright Page 7 Dedication 8 Table of Contents 10 List of Contributors 14 Acknowledgements 18 Introduction: Writing Women's Rights – From Enlightenment to Ecofeminism 20 Part I: Rights 46 1 Like Nobody Else: Women and Independence in the Novels of Charlotte Smith and Mary Wollstonecraft 48 2 Romantic Women Travel Writers, Politics and the Environment: An Ecofeminist Reading of the Swiss Landscape 61 3 Feminism and Animal Advocacy in the Long Nineteenth Century: Anne Brontë and the 'abuses of society' 74 4 "They all revolved about her": Disability, Femininity, and Power in Mid-Victorian Women's Writing 88 5 The "quest for harmony"? Utopia, Matriarchal Communities, and Feminist Self-Critique 101 6 Jan Morris and the Territory Between: Interrogating Nation and Normality in Contemporary Welsh Trans Writing 115 Part II: Networks 130 7 "Men shall not make us foes": Charlotte Brontë's Letters and her Female Friendship Networks 132 8 Transatlantic Feminism and Antislavery Activism: Women's Networks, Letter Writing, and Literature in the Long Nineteenth Century 144 9 Forgotten Feminist Fiction: Netta Syrett, New Woman Writing, and Women's Suffrage 157 10 "It was Little more than a dining club": Examining the Epistolary Networks of Willa Muir and Helen B. Cruickshank in the Founding of Scottish PEN 169 11 "What means a frontier?" Nancy Cunard, Feminist Internationalism, and the Spanish Civil War 184 Part III: Bodies 200 12 Reputation of [her] pen: Retrieving the Black Female Body From the Margins of the Page and the Stage 202 13 "We wear the bandages, but our limbs have not grown to them": Eugenic Feminism and Female Economic Dependence in Mona Caird, Olive Schreiner, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman 220 14 Lesbian-trans-feminist Modernism and Sexual Science: Irene Clyde and Urania 234 15 "Beauty in Revolt": Fashioning Feminists in Rebecca West and Jean Rhys 249 16 "The rule of three": Textual Triads, Trialogues, and Women's Voices in Sylvia Plath, Jackie Kay, and Debbie Tucker Green 263 17 Feminism, Eugenics, and Genetics: From Convergence to Contestation 282 Part IV: Production 294 18 "O Happiness, thou pleasing dream, / Where is thy substance found?" Anne Steele's Public and Private Eighteenth-Century Writings on Happiness 296 19 "Dearest Norah...": The Professional and Personal Relationships Forged Between an Editor and her Authors 312 20 Feminist Citation in Buchi Emecheta's Early Fiction and Autobiography: Publishing Race, Class, and Gender 325 21 "Working with the cloth": Materialising Women's Creative Labour in the Work of Rosamond Lehmann, Beryl Bainbridge, and Joan Riley 341 22 "To the sisters I always wanted": Women, Writers' Groups, and Print Culture in Glasgow, 1980–1988 355 23 Mother Country: Leonora Brito Writes Wales – Black British Identity, Maternity, and Memory in the Welsh Short Story 371 Part V: Activism 384 24 In a Circle with Mary Hays: Writing Novels to Reform Society in the 1790s 386 25 In the Advance Guard of Victorian Literary Feminism: The Actress as an Independent Woman and Social Reformer in Eliza Lynn Linton's Realities: A Tale (1851) 399 26 "Rice puddings, made without milk": Mother Seacole Reforms "home habits" in the Crimea 412 27 "Your Great Adventure is to report her faithfully": The Centring of Women's Voices and Stories in Suffrage Theatre 425 28 A Life Can Be a Manifesto: Connecting Bernadine Evaristo to a History of Feminist Manifestos 438 29 Holding Women's Voices: Open Clasp as an Example of Feminist Theatre Practice 451 30 Protecting the Land, Safeguarding the Future: Ecofeminism, Activist Women's Writing, and Contemporary Publishing in Wales 465 Index 481 cultural,history;,British,literature;,gender,studies;,feminist,studies;,equality;,activism cultural history,British literature,gender studies,feminist studies,equality,activism