British Women Writers and the Reception of Ancient Egypt, 1840-1910 [electronic resource] : Imperialist Representations of Egyptian Women /
Youngkin, Molly.author.
This book shows how British women writers' encounters with textual and visual representations of ancient Egyptian women such as Hathor, Isis, and Cleopatra influenced how British women represented their own desired emancipation in novels, poetry, drama, romances, and fictional treatises. Molly Youngkin argues that canonical women writers such as Florence Nightingale and George Eliot—and less canonical figures such as Katharine Bradley and Edith Cooper (who wrote under the name 'Michael Field') and Elinor Glyn—incorporated their knowledge of ancient Egyptian women's cultural power in only a limited fashion when presenting their visions for emancipation. Often, they represented ancient Greek women or Italian Renaissance women rather than ancient Egyptian women, since Greek and Italian cultures were more familiar and less threatening to their British audience. This notable distinction opens up discussions about the history of British women, their writing, and the British view on gender in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph
Includes bibliographical references and index.
This book shows how British women writers' encounters with textual and visual representations of ancient Egyptian women such as Hathor, Isis, and Cleopatra influenced how British women represented their own desired emancipation in novels, poetry, drama, romances, and fictional treatises. Molly Youngkin argues that canonical women writers such as Florence Nightingale and George Eliot—and less canonical figures such as Katharine Bradley and Edith Cooper (who wrote under the name 'Michael Field') and Elinor Glyn—incorporated their knowledge of ancient Egyptian women's cultural power in only a limited fashion when presenting their visions for emancipation. Often, they represented ancient Greek women or Italian Renaissance women rather than ancient Egyptian women, since Greek and Italian cultures were more familiar and less threatening to their British audience. This notable distinction opens up discussions about the history of British women, their writing, and the British view on gender in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Machine generated contents note: -- Introduction -- 1. Bound by an English Eye: Ancient Cultures, Imperialist Contexts, and Literary Representations of Egyptian Women -- 2. Acting as "the right hand... of God": Christianized Egyptian Women and Religious Devotion as Emancipation in Florence Nightingale's Fictionalized Treatises -- 3. "[T]o give new elements. .. as vivid as... long familiar types": Heroic Jewish Men, Dangerous Egyptian Women, and Equivocal Emancipation in George Eliot's Novels -- 4. "[W]e had never chosen a Byzantine subject... or one from Alexandria": Emancipation through Desire and the Eastern Limits of Beauty in Michael Field's Verse Dramas -- 5. The "sweetness of the serpent of old Nile": Revisionist Cleopatra and Spiritual Union as Emancipation in Elinor Glyn's Crosscultural Romances -- 6. "My ancestor, my sister": Ancient Heritage Imagery and Modern Egyptian Women Writers -- Afterword.
British literature.
Literature—History and criticism.
Literature, Modern—19th century.
Sociology.
British and Irish Literature.
Literary History.
Nineteenth-Century Literature.
Gender Studies.