Examining the representation of women in the spaces of the railway in literature and culture of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this book explores the extraordinary and unprecedented opportunities that the train offered women. An emblem of the conquest of national and imperial space an...

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Bibliographic Details

Main Author:	Despotopoulou, Anna (Author)
Format:	Electronic eBook
Language:	English
Published:	Edinburgh Edinburgh University Press 2015
Subjects:	Geschichte 1800-1900 Geschichte 1850-1915 Geschichte English literature / 19th century / History and criticism Railroad travel in literature Women travelers in literature Railroad travel / Great Britain / History Women travelers / Great Britain / History Englisch Eisenbahn > Motiv Literatur Frau > Motiv Großbritannien
Online Access:	BSB01 Volltext
Summary:	Examining the representation of women in the spaces of the railway in literature and culture of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this book explores the extraordinary and unprecedented opportunities that the train offered women. An emblem of the conquest of national and imperial space and of the staggering advances of science and technology, the train gave women a taste of its omnipotence, eventually becoming a space of emancipation, transgression, and fear for women. The book brings together the sensation, mystery, realist and early modernist railway narratives by female and male authors, analysing women's trajectories within and beyond the city and the nation, as urban passengers, travellers, tourists and colonists.In texts by authors such as Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Margaret Oliphant, Rhoda Broughton, Mary Ward, Flora Annie Steel and Mona Caird as well as Wilkie Collins, Thomas Hardy and Henry James, the ambiguous space of the railway highlights the artificiality of the private/public divide, while giving rise to woman's impulse to traverse boundaries, not only physically but also mentally and emotionally. In the novels, short stories in periodicals, news items and commentaries, essays, illustrations and paintings examined, trains become contact zones of multiple encounters, but also battlefields of gender, class and imperial ideology. Key features: * The first full-length examination of texts by and about women which explore the railway as a gendered space within a British and European context *Explores a variety of cultural discourses which deal with women and the railway: fiction, poetry, news stories and commentaries, essays, paintings, and illustrations *Proposes a reconceptualization of the public/private binary *Concentrates on many understudied writers of the nineteenth century *Includes 9 images to help illustrate the study
Item Description:	Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 08 Aug 2016)
Physical Description:	1 online resource (x, 202 pages)
ISBN:	9780748676958