The Victorian Woman Question in Contemporary Feminist Fiction (eBook)

JEANNETTE KING is Director of Women's Studies at the University of Aberdeen, UK. Her previous publications include Tragedy in the Victorian Novel; Doris Lessing and Women and the Word: Contemporary Women Novelists and the Bible.

Acknowledgements Introduction PART 1: WHAT IS A WOMAN? VICTORIAN CONSTRUCTIONS OF FEMININITY Religious Prescriptions and Cultural Reflections The Biological Sciences An Unhealthy Mind in an Unhealthy Body? Evolutionary Theory and the Social Sciences Entering the Gender Debate PART 2: THE DARWINIAN MOMENT: THE WOMAN THAT NEVER EVOLVED Separate Species and Separate Spheres: Andrea Barrett, The Voyage of the Naywhal 1855-1856 Darwin and Romantic Love: A.S. Byatt, Morpho Eugenia PART 3: 'CRIMINALS, IDIOTS, WOMEN AND MINORS': DEVIANT MINDS IN DEVIANT BODIES Madwoman or Bad Woman? Margaret Attwood, Alias Grace Criminal Influence: Sarah Waters, Affinity PART 4: SUBVERSIVE SPIRITS: SPIRITIUALISM AND FEMALE DESIRE 'Power Words': Victoria Glendinning, Electricity Gender and Poetry: A.S. Byatt, The Conjugial Angel Spiritualism, Psychology and History: Michèle Roberts, In the Red Kitchen PART 5: DEGENERATION AND SEXUAL ANARCHY The Newly-born Woman: Angela Carter, Nights at the Circus Performing Gender: Sarah Waters, Tipping the Velvet PART 6: EVOLUTIONARY THOUGHT, GENDER AND RACE 'Ain't I a Woman?': Toni Morrison's Beloved Afterword Bibliography Index