Ancient & Medieval Literature, Genres & Literary Forms, Intellectual Movements, Ancient History, General & Miscellaneous Literary Criticism, Civilization - History, English Literature
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Overview
Gendering Classicism explores the intersection of feminism, historical fiction, and modernism through the work of six writers, all of whom wrote historical novels set in ancient Greece or Rome: Naomi Mitchison, Mary Butts, Laura Riding, Phyllis Bentley, Bryher, and Mary Renault. As women gained access to higher education in the late nineteenth century, they gained access also to the classical learning that had for so long demarcated and legitimated the British ruling classes. Steeped in misogyny, the classical tradition presented educated women with a massive project: the recasting of that tradition in terms that acknowledged the existence of women - as historical agents and interpreters of the historical past.Editorials
Booknews
Hoberman (English Eastern Illinois U.) examines the work of six British women who wrote historical novels set in ancient Greece or Rome, showing how they recast the misogynist classical studies women had only recently gained access to. She discusses Naomi Mitchison, Mary Butts, Laura Riding, Phyllis Bently, Bryher, and Mary Renault; and such topics as ritual, Cressida's complexity, masquing the phallus, British imperialism, and Cleopatra. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.Book Details
Published
April 4, 1997
Publisher
Albany : State University of New York Press, c1997.
Pages
199
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780791433355