Graduation Semester and Year

2022

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in English

Department

English

First Advisor

Penelope Ingram

Abstract

In this dissertation I examine early twentieth century women writers’ use of fashion as a mode of critiquing gender, race, and class oppression. Through close reading of the novels of Nella Larsen, Edith Wharton, Anzia Yezierska, Radclyffe Hall, and Virginia Woolf, I explore how fashion in these works functions to emphasize elements of identity formation and conditioning. I argue that by taking up fashion as a tool for critique women writers were able to simultaneously challenge oppressive social structures as well as appraisals of women as unfit for serious analysis or literature. If fashion is considered trivial, then using it for something as consequential as a critique of modern culture’s oppressive class, race, and gender structures was quite revolutionary. Using feminist theory and criticism on the social construction of gender, intersectionality, and women’s writing, I maintain that the extensive use of fashion imagery in these works gave the writers a tangible means of expressing their beliefs about women’s changing position in turn-of-the-century society. Because both fashion and women’s political positions were changing rapidly at this time, combining the two in fiction allowed women writers to explore issues of identity and agency for women in modern culture.

Keywords

Women's literature, Fashion, Feminism, Gender, Modernism

Disciplines

Arts and Humanities | English Language and Literature

Comments

Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington

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