Adolescent Girlhood and Literary Culture at the Fin de Siècle: Daughters of Today PDF
Preview Adolescent Girlhood and Literary Culture at the Fin de Siècle: Daughters of Today
Adolescent Girlhood and Literary Culture at the Fin de Siècle Daughters of Today Beth Rodgers Palgrave Studies in Nineteenth-Century Writing and Culture General Editor: Joseph Bristow Palgrave Studies in Nineteenth-Century Writing and Culture Series Editor Joseph Bristow Department of English University of California - Los Angeles Los Angeles , California, USA Aim of the Series Palgrave Studies in Nineteenth-Century Writing and Culture is a new monograph series that aims to represent the most innovative research on literary works that were produced in the English-speaking world from the time of the Napoleonic Wars to the fi n de siécle. Attentive to the histori- cal continuities between ‘Romantic’ and ‘Victorian’, the series will feature studies that help scholarship to reassess the meaning of these terms during a century marked by diverse cultural, literary, and political movements. The main aim of the series is to look at the increasing infl uence of types of historicism on our understanding of literary forms and genres. It refl ects the shift from critical theory to cultural history that has affected not only the period 1800–1900 but also every fi eld within the discipline of English literature. All titles in the series seek to offer fresh critical perspectives and challenging readings of both canonical and non-canonical writings of this era. Editorial Board: Hilary Fraser, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK; Josephine McDonagh, Kings College, London, UK; Yopie Prins, University of Michigan, USA; Lindsay Smith, University of Sussex, UK; Margaret Stetz, University of Delaware, USA; Jenny Bourne Taylor, University of Sussex, UK. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/14607 Beth Rodgers Adolescent Girlhood and Literary Culture at the Fin de Siècle Daughters of Today Beth Rodgers Department of English and Creative Writing Aberystwyth University Ceredigion, United Kingdom Palgrave Studies in Nineteenth-Century Writing and Culture ISBN 978-3-319-32623-8 ISBN 978-3-319-32624-5 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-32624-5 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016946979 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2 016 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Cover illustration: © thislife pictures/Alamy Stock Photo Cover design by Jenny Vong Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Nature America Inc. New York The registered company address is :1 New York Plaza, New York, NY 10004, U.S.A. In memory of my grandmothers, Eleanor Halstead and Margaret Rodgers, and my great aunt, Elizabeth Abraham A CKNOWLEDGEMENTS This book started life at Queen’s University Belfast, where as a doctoral student I was enormously lucky to be under the supervision of Caroline Sumpter. Caroline’s intelligence, warmth and wit were and continue to be an inspiration and it was a privilege to be among her fi rst cohort of supervisees. My examiners, Lyn Pykett and Leon Litvack, offered astute feedback and much-appreciated encouragement. I am particularly grate- ful to Lyn for her continued support and advice since then. Thanks to Aberystwyth University for the semester of study leave that enabled me to fi nish the manuscript and to my colleagues there who have made me feel very welcome. I would particularly like to thank Damian Walford Davies, Louise Marshall, Elisabeth Salter and my mentor, Richard Marggraf Turley. I am grateful to the anonymous reader for their perceptive com- ments and to Joseph Bristow and the editorial team at Palgrave for their faith in this book. The idea of community plays an important role in this book and, out- side its pages, I have been fortunate to be part of some fantastic scholarly communities. I could not have wished for a better group of people to study alongside at QUB: my sincere thanks to Anna Dillon, Lisa Keogh, Sonja Lawrenson, Caroline Magennis, Eva McDermott, Clara Neary, Mariana Neilly and Fergal O’Prey. Fellow Victorianists Éadaoin Agnew, Clare Clarke and Clare Gill have provided invaluable feedback on chap- ters in this book, generously shared their expertise and thrown the best book club nights in the business. The children’s literature, girls’ studies and Victorian periodicals communities have been warm and welcoming places in which to develop my research over the years. I would like to vii viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS acknowledge the support and feedback of, in particular: Susan Cahill, Jane Carroll, Alexis Easley, Tina O’Toole, Pádraic Whyte and the members of the Irish Society for the Study of Children’s Literature. Particular thanks to Kristine Moruzi and Michelle Smith for their stellar organization of the Colonial Girlhood/Colonial Girls conference in Melbourne in 2012, in which a good proportion of my bibliography came to life before my (jet- lagged) eyes. As I was in the fi nal stages of preparing this manuscript, the Victorian studies community received the sad news of the death of Sally Mitchell. I met Sally at one of the fi rst conferences I ever attended and she was kind and generous in the face of my somewhat awe-struck demeanour. Those of us who work on Victorian girlhood are forever in debt to her. Material from Chap. 2 was previously published as ‘Competing Girlhoods: Competition, Community and Reader Contribution in the Girl’s Own Paper and the Girl’s Realm ’, V ictorian Periodicals Review 45.3 (Autumn 2012): 277–300. My thanks to Alexis Easley for permission to reprint this. Sections of Chap. 3 appeared in earlier forms in ‘Irishness, Authorship and the “Wild Irish Girls” of L.T. Meade (1844–1914)’, English Literature in Transition, 1880–1920 56.2 (Jan 2013): 131–51 and ‘ “Enjoy the last of your schoolgirl life”: Making Transitions in the Girls’ School Stories of L.T. Meade (1844–1914) and Raymond Jacberns (1866–1911)’, W hat Do We Tell Children? Critical Essays on Children’s Literature , eds Ciara Ní Bhroin and Patricia Kennon (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2012), 163–80. Grateful thanks to Robert Langenfeld and Cambridge Scholars Press for permission to use this material. I would like to thank my family for their support over the duration of this project and beyond. Michael Rodgers has been on hand for any technological disasters and Philip Rodgers, who shares my love of books and history, has always kept me on my toes. My parents, David and Sheila, have been unfailing in their love, patience and tolerance over the years (sorry about all the books still in your house). Finally, Graeme Neill, who missed the PhD years but was most certainly there for the book years, thank you for believing in this project, for being uncharacteristically patient when required and for your limitless support. C ONTENTS 1 Introduction: Debating and Defi ning Girlhood at the Fin de Siècle 1 2 Classifying Girlhood, Creating Heroines: Aspiration, Community and Competition in the Girl’s Own Paper and the Girl’s Realm 35 3 Making Transitions in Fin-de-Siècle Girls’ School Stories, 1886–1906 79 4 ‘Flowering into Womanhood’? The New Woman and the New Girl 115 5 ‘Development and Arrest of Development’: Sarah Grand’s ‘Girls of Today’ 143 6 Professionalizing the Modern Girl: Ella Hepworth Dixon, W. T. Stead and Journalism for Girls 181 ix x CONTENTS 7 Coda: Voyaging Out 219 Works Cited 231 Index 247
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