Women, writing, and the industrial revolution
By: Susan Zlotnick.
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Baltimore, Md
Language: eng
Number of pages: 325
Subjects: English literature -- Women authors -- History and criticism; Industrial revolution in literature; Women and literature -- Great Britain -- History -- 18th century; Women and literature -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century; English literature -- 18th century -- History and criticism; English literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism; Literature and technology -- Great Britain -- History; Industrial revolution -- Great Britain -- History; Industrial revolution -- Literary collections; Industries -- Literary collections
Description: Industrialization in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries inspired deep fears and divisions throughout England. The era's emergent factory system disrupted traditional patterns and familiar ways of life. Male laborers feared the loss of meaningful work and status within their communities and families. Condemning these transformations, Britain's male writers looked longingly to an idealized past. Its women writers, however, were not so pessimistic about the future.

As Susan Zlotnick argues in Women, Writing, and the Industrial Revolution, women writers foresaw in the industrial revolution the prospect of real improvements. Zlotnick also examines the poetry and fiction produced by working-class men and women. She includes texts written by the Chartists, the largest laboring-class movement in the early nineteenth century, as well as those of the dialect tradition, the popular, commercial literature of the industrial working class after mid-century.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [299]-313) and index.