Date of Award

1-1-2012

Document Type

Masters Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.

Organizational Unit

College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences

First Advisor

Eleanor McNees, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Ann Dobyns

Third Advisor

M. E. Warlick

Keywords

Anne Thackeray Ritchie, Cornhill Magazine, Feminine realism, Frances Parthenope Verney, Periodical studies, Victorian women writers

Abstract

This thesis explores the literature published by two lesser known women writers in Cornhill Magazine during the 1860s: Anne Thackeray Ritchie and Frances Parthenope Verney. By using the magazine as a context for their fiction, I examine the ways in which these writers both reflect Cornhill's brand of realism, which privileged masculine ideology, and diverge from it, inserting a feminine perspective. Because the magazine's representation of the multiple facets of its society is varied and complex, my thesis examines a particular aspect of societal representation: one that depicts mid-nineteenth-century society in transition from traditional to progressive values. Caught between these phases, Thackeray Ritchie and Verney recognize and reflect the implications such a transition had on women and their place in society. Both embrace traditional values and comply with gender norms, creating distinctly feminine texts, but, in so doing, they argue for more opportunities for women, including education, vocation, and independence. In the process of portraying women, they create a feminine realism that complies with but expands Cornhill's masculine ideology and realist constructions.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Alexandra Virginia Scamahorn

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

en

File Size

143 p.

Discipline

British and Irish literature, Women's studies, Literature

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