The New Woman was the symbol of the shifting categories of gender and sexuality and epitomised the spirit of the fin de siècle . This informative monograph offers an interdisciplinary approach to the growing field of New Woman studies by exploring the relationship between first-wave feminist literature, the nineteenth-century women's movement and female consumer culture. The book expertly places the debate about femininity, feminism and fiction in its cultural and socio-historical context, examining New Woman fiction as a genre whose emerging theoretical discourse prefigured concepts central to second-wave feminist theory.

Autorentext

ANN HEILMANN is Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Wales Swansea. She has edited an anthology on The Late-Victorian Marriage Question: A Collection of Key New Woman Texts (1998).

Inhalt

List of Illustrations Abbreviations Regen(d)eration Contesting/Consuming Femininities Keynotes and Discords Marriage and Its Discontents The Crisis of Gender and Sexuality The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman Departures