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
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Sperandio Phelps, Lauren Elizabeth, "(RE)FASHIONING GENDER: DRESS AS EMBODIED FEMINIST CRITIQUE IN MODERNIST WOMEN’S WRITING" (2022). English Dissertations. 101.
https://mavmatrix.uta.edu/english_dissertations/101
Comments
Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington