The Foreign Woman in British Literature. Exotics, Aliens, and Outsiders PDF
Preview The Foreign Woman in British Literature. Exotics, Aliens, and Outsiders
The Foreign Woman in British Literature Recent Titles in Contributions in Women's Studies Deprivation and Power: The Emergence of Anorexia Nervosa in Nineteenth-Century French Literature Patricia A. McEachern A History of Popular Women's Magazines in the United States, 1792-1995 Mary Ellen Zuckerman Busybodies, Meddlers, and Snoops: The Female Hero in Contemporary Women's Mysteries Kimberly J. Dilley Untying the Tongue: Gender, Power, and the Word Linda Longmire and Lisa Merrill, editors Scheherazade's Sisters: Trickster Heroines and Their Stories in World Literature Marilyn Jurich Gender and Genre in Gertrude Stein Franziska Gygax Rewriting the Word: American Women Writers and the Bible Amy Benson Brown Ethnicity and Gender in the Barsetshire Novels of Angela Thirkell Penelope Fritzer Women of Courage: Jewish and Italian Immigrant Women in New York Rose Laub Coser, Laura S. Anker, and Andrew J. Perrin Contemporary Irish Women Poets: Some Male Perspectives Alexander G. Gonzalez Queer Poetics: Five Modernist Women Writers Mary E. Galvin White Women Writing White: H.D., Elizabeth Bishop, Sylvia Plath, and Whiteness Renee R. Curry The Foreign Woman in British Literature Exotics, Aliens, and Outsiders Edited by Marilyn Demarest Button and Toni Reed Contributions in Women's Studies, Number 171 GREENWOOD PRESS Westport, Connecticut • London Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The foreign woman in British literature : exotics, aliens, and outsiders / edited by Marilyn Demarest Button and Toni Reed. p. cm.—(Contributions in women's studies, ISSN 0147-104X ; no. 171) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-313-30928-0 (alk. paper) 1. English literature—19th century—History and criticism. 2. English literature—20th century—History and criticism. 3. Women and literature—Great Britain—History. 4. Exoticismin literature. 5. Outsiders in literature. 6. Aliens in literature. I. Button, Marilyn. II. Reed, Toni, date. III. Series. PR468.W6F67 1999 820.9'352042—dc21 98-41421 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Copyright © 1999 by Marilyn Demarest Button and Toni Reed All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 98-41421 ISBN: 0-313-30928-0 ISSN: 0147-104X First published in 1999 Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. www.greenwood.com Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48-1984). 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21 For Allyson Button Phillips (1957-1996) who would have been the first to celebrate this book. -Marilyn D. Button and For Terry and Bert McGraw, who sheltered, protected, and inspired me, much like the Comox glacier that overlooks their stunningly beautiful valley. -Toni Reed This page intentionally left blank Contents Preface ix Introduction xiii Marilyn Demarest Button 1. Dismantling Traditionalist Gender Roles: An Exotic Counter- 1 World in Byron's Don Juan Frank P. Riga 2. Transforming the Stereotype: Exotic Women in Shelley's 17 Alas tor and The Witch of Atlas John Greenfield 3. "Asia Loves Prometheus": Asian Women and Shelley's 27 Macropolitics Eleanor Harrington-Austin 4. A Genealogy of Ruths: From Alien Harvester to Fallen Woman 45 in Nineteenth-Century England Eve W. Stoddard 5. Imagining a Self between a Husband or a Wall: Charlotte Bronte's 67 Villette Andrea O'Reilly Herrera 6. Challenging Traditionalist Gender Roles: The Exotic Woman 79 as Critical Observer in Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Aurora Leigh Maureen Thum Vlll Contents 7. "In Short, She Is an Angel; and I Am—": Odd Women and 95 Same-Sex Desire in Wilkie Collins's Woman in White Laurel Erickson 8. Tigresses, Tinsel Madonnas, and Citizens of the World: 117 The "Other" Woman in George Eliot's Fiction Oliver Lovesey 9. Phantoms Mistaken for a Human Face: Race and the Construction 127 of the African Woman's Identity in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness Ode S. Ogede 10. The Foreign Woman Is a Man: Gender Reversal in 139 D. H. Lawrence's Fiction Karl Henzy 11. Gypsy Women in English Life and Literature 145 Celia Esplugas 12. "Our Many Larval Selves": Durrell's Livia and the Cross-Cultural 159 Signal Mary Mathew 13. A Losing Tradition: The Exotic Female of Anita Brookner's 171 Early Fiction Marilyn Demarest Button Afterword 183 Index 187 About the Contributors 199 Preface Books have diverse origins. This collection began, in an important way, in the editor's personal experience, but as it evolved, it engaged both the personal and literary interests of many others. My interest in the foreign woman is attributable chiefly to two factors in my family background. First, my mother, by American standards, is a foreign woman. She was born and raised in London, and in spite of over fifty years of being married to an American, she retains both the speech and mannerisms of the English. When I was growing up, for example, teatime became the single most predictable daily event. It still is. It occurs at four o'clock sharp and is accompanied by biscuits and conversation. During December festivities, Christmas crackers always began the holiday meal, and until recently, when my nieces declared their unqualified aversion, plum pudding was served as dessert. My mother is the only person I know who can knit intricate patterns without looking (a talent developed from her days at convent school) and who refuses to discuss the future of the royal family because to do so would be to acknowledge the institution's vulnerability to change. My mother's character and talents as a homemaker flavored our childhood with the pleasures that come from blending two cultures in one home. Second, my father's career in the American Civil Service brought our family into contact with people from all over the world. Some of my earliest childhood memories include dinner parties for friends and employees of the Voice of America, for which my father was then director (1956-1958), at our home in Arlington, Virginia. Guests brought their native dishes of Indian curry, Korean spare ribs, or French escargot. We enjoyed their native costumes, songs, and language. They shared their culture and their lives, often entrusting to us insights about the personal and political complexities of their experience in America. Six years in Paris, France, while my father served as Public Affairs
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