The Victorian Woman Question in Contemporary Feminist Fiction

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