New Woman fiction

The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature | 2003 | 700+ words | Copyright

New Woman fiction, a term used to describe late 19th-cent. writings which foreground the ideas and actions of the ‘New Woman’, a phrase said to have been coined by Ouida when responding to S. Grand's article ‘The New Aspects of the Woman Question’, 1894. Grand's own novels, like The Heavenly Twins (1893) and The Beth Book (1897), include many elements associated with this agent and representative of social change: attacks on sexual double standards; demands for better employment and educational opportunities for women; frankness about matters like venereal disease and sex education; and questioning of traditional attitudes towards marriage and woman's place in the family and in relation to motherhood. The first example of the genre is probably Schreiner's Story of an African Farm (1883). Other notable writers include E. F. Brooke (1845–1926), Caird, E. H. Dixon (1857–1932), G. Egerton, and M. M. Dowie. Ibsen and Gissing are among the male writers who addressed similar themes.

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

MLA
Chicago
APA

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "New Woman fiction." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 29 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "New Woman fiction." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (May 29, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-NewWomanfiction.html

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "New Woman fiction." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved May 29, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-NewWomanfiction.html

Learn more about citation styles