Time is of the essence
Subtitle: temporality, gender, and the New Woman
By: Patricia Murphy.
Series: SUNY series, studies in the long nineteenth century
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: 2001
Place of publication: Albany
Language: eng
Number of pages: 291
Subjects: Schreiner, Olive, 1855-1920.; Hardy, Thomas, 1840-1928.; Haggard, H. Rider 1856-1925.; Grand, Sarah -- Criticism and interpretation.; Caird, Mona.; English fiction -- 19th century -- History and criticism.; Feminism and literature -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century.; Women and literature -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century.; Feminist fiction, English -- History and criticism.; Sex role in literature.; Women in literature.; Time in literature.
Genres: Criticism and interpretation.
Description: "In Time Is of the Essence, Patricia Murphy argues that the Victorian debate on the Woman Question was informed by a crucial but as yet unexplored element at the fin de siecle: the cultural construction of time. Victorians were obsessed with time in this century of incessant change, responding to such diverse developments as Darwinism, a newfound faith in progress, an unprecedented fascination with history and origins, and the nascent discipline of evolutionary psychology.

The works examined here - novels by Thomas Hardy, Olive Schreiner, H. Rider Haggard, Sarah Grand, and Mona Caird - manipulate prevalent discourses on time to convey anxieties over gender, which intensified in the century's final decades with the appearance of the rebellious New Woman.

Unmasking the intricate relationship between time and gender that threaded through these and other works of the period, Murphy reveals that the cultural construction of time, which was grounded in the gender-charged associations of history, progress, Christianity, and evolution, served as a powerful vehicle for reinforcing rigid boundaries between masculinity and femininity.

In the process, she also covers a number of other important and intriguing topics, including the effects of rail travel on Victorian perceptions of time and the explosion of watch production throughout the period."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 259-283) and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: I; title: Chapter 1; title: Introduction: Victorian Temporality and the New Woman1; title: Chapter 2; title: Buttressing the Binary: Temporal Dichotomies in She31; title: Chapter 3; title: Trapping the Female in Time: History and Aesthetics; title: in Tess of the d'Urbervilles71; title: Chapter 4; title: Reinterpreting Evolutionary Development: Feminine; title: Psychology in The Beth Book and The Heavenly Twins109; title: Chapter 5; title: Controlling Women's Time: Regulatory Days and; title: Historical Determinism in The Daughters ofDanaus151; title: Chapter 6; title: Dissolving the Boundaries: Temporal Subversion in; title: The Story of an African Farm189; title: Afterword: Pointing the Way to Moderist Time227; title: Notes233; title: Works Cited259; title: I .ndex - S 285.