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Elizabeth Maslen reassesses fiction written by women between the granting of universal franchise and the advent of new-wave feminism. Through close readings of a wide range of novels, she analyzes the way writers choose to represent such issues as pacifism and the threat of fascism, war, race and class, and gender.
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Political and Social Issues in British Women’s Fiction, 1928–1968 Elizabeth Maslen Political and Social Issues in British Women’s Fiction, 1928–1968 Also by Elizabeth Maslen DORIS LESSING Political and Social Issues in British Women’s Fiction, 1928–1968 Elizabeth Maslen Queen Mary College University of London © Elizabeth Maslen 2001 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 0LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2001 by PALGRAVE Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE is the new global academic imprint of St. Martin’s Press LLC Scholarly and Reference Division and Palgrave Publishers Ltd (formerly Macmillan Press Ltd). ISBN 0–333–72953–6 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Maslen, Elizabeth Political and social issues in British women’s fiction, 1928–1968 / Elizabeth Maslen. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0–333–72953–6 (cloth) 1. English fiction—Women authors—History and criticism. 2. Politics and literature—Great Britain—History—20th century. 3. Literature and society—Great Britain—History—20th century. 4. Women and literature—Great Britain—History—20th century. 5. English fiction– –20th century—History and criticism. 6. Political fiction, English– –History and criticism. 7. Social problems in literature. 8. Politics in literature. I. Title. PR888.P6 M37 2000 823'.9109358'082—dc21 00–049142 10 10 9 09 8 08 7 07 6 06 5 05 4 04 3 03 2 02 1 01 Printed in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wiltshire For BLAD, RKB, JY and TS with love This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgements viii Introduction 1 1 Women's Ways of Writing `An uproar of voices' in the thirties The forties as `a series of transformations' `The dangers of insufficient symbolism' after the War The `socially determined fiction' of private life in the sixties 20 28 41 46 2 Wars and Rumours of Wars Hauntings and forebodings of war in the thirties Home and abroad in the War years `The post-war': neither war nor peace in the late forties Under the shadow of the bomb in the fifties and sixties 62 67 75 85 90 3 52 Marginalities of Race and Class Race, empire and wage-slaves in the thirties Xenophobia, merging and mixing in the forties The shifting and changing margins of the fifties New voices of the sixties 99 101 113 123 134 4 Men, Women, Sex and Gender Advances and exclusions in the