85 Introduction
In This Chapter
History of Female Novelists
Before the twentieth century, only a few female writers, such as Charlotte Brontë or George Eliot, had the courage or the opportunity to break social restrictions and conventions in order to produce short stories and novels that represented female subjectivity and agency in their own right, even if they often had to do so by complying with the dominant worldviews of a patriarchal society. It is only with the development of identity politics that women, as well as other minority groups such as LGBTQ+ people, have been able to use prose fiction to openly explore themes of gender identity and sexuality, or simply to speak with their own creative voice about themes that had traditionally been the sole prerogative of heterosexual men. A novel like Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook, for example, mixes personal, professional, literary, political, and feminist themes into a fragmentary narrative that aims to replicate the fragmentation of female consciousness amid social and individual struggles.
17th and 18th Centuries
The history of women writing novels is a fascinating journey that spans centuries and has seen significant changes in societal attitudes towards women’s literary contributions. The roots of women’s novel writing can be traced back to the 17th and 18th centuries. One notable figure from this period is Aphra Behn, who is considered one of the first English women to earn her living by writing. Her novel Oroonoko (1688) is often regarded as one of the earliest novels written in English.
The 18th Century
The 18th century saw the rise of the novel as a popular literary form. Women played a crucial role in shaping this genre. One of the most prominent names is Jane Austen, whose works such as Pride and Prejudice (1813) and Emma (1815) are renowned for their wit, social commentary, and insightful portrayal of female characters.
The 19th Century
The 19th century witnessed the flourishing of women novelists. Writers like the Brontë sisters (Charlotte, Emily, and Anne) challenged societal expectations and produced influential works. Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1847) and Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847) remain classics to this day. Other notable Victorian-era authors include Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot (the pen name of Mary Ann Evans), and Mrs. Henry Wood.
Women and the Cult of Domesticity
The “cult of domesticity” was an ideal of womanhood that was prominent during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. This value system offered a distinct image of femininity that placed women within the homes and as the centers of their families. Many of the same virtues that were expected of women in previous centuries continued as expectations now: purity, piety, and submissiveness. The prominence of this idea was, at least in part, a result of the changes in production that arose as America became more settled.
Nineteenth-century middle-class families no longer had to produce as a unit what was needed to survive, as previous families had to do. Therefore, men could now work in jobs that produced goods or services while their wives and children stayed at home. The reality, though, is revealed through the literature– fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. Many women did not conform to this ideal, actively engaging outside of their homes in different political and social ventures.
Women—along with African Americans, American Indians, and other minorities—were overlooked in the expansion of democracy across early nineteenth-century America. Suffrage expansion at this time was limited to white males, leaving all women and non-white men behind. Women of this era were generally pushed to the sidelines as dependents of men, without the power to bring suit, make contracts, own property, or vote. During the era of the “cult of domesticity,” society tended to see women merely as an accompaniment to their husbands. By the 1830s and 40s, however, the climate began to change when a number of bold, outspoken women championed diverse social reforms of slavery, alcohol, war, prisons, prostitution, and capital punishment.
Suffrage Movement and Beyond
The late 19th and early 20th centuries were marked by the suffrage movement and increased social and political activism among women. Writers such as Virginia Woolf, a key figure in modernist literature, explored feminist themes and made significant contributions to the novel. Woolf’s novels, including Mrs. Dalloway (1925) and To the Lighthouse (1927), experimented with narrative techniques and delved into the inner lives of women.
Women and Politics in the Early 19th Century
Many women in the nineteenth century were involved in reform movements, particularly abolitionism. In 1831, Maria Stewart (who was African American) began to write essays and make speeches against slavery, promoting educational and economic self-sufficiency for African Americans. Although her career was short, she had set the stage for the African-American women speakers who followed her, including Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Tubman. The first women’s antislavery society was created in 1832 by free black women from Salem, Massachusetts.
Activists began to question women’s subservience to men and encouraged a rallying around the abolitionist movement as a way of calling attention to all human rights. Two influential Southern sisters, Angelina and Sarah Grimké, called for women to “participate in the freeing and educating of slaves.” Harriet Wilson became the first African American to publish a novel addressing the theme of racism. Lucretia Mott, an educated woman from Boston, was one of the most powerful advocates of reform and acted as a bridge between the feminist and the abolitionist movements. Sarah Margaret Fuller wrote “Women in the Nineteenth Century,” an early consideration of feminism, and edited The Dial for the Transcendental Club. Despite the expectations that arose from the “cult of domesticity,” many women’s antislavery societies were active before the Civil War.
20th and 21st Centuries
The 20th century witnessed the emergence of many influential women novelists from various cultural backgrounds. Some notable names include Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird, 1960), Toni Morrison (Beloved, 1987), Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid’s Tale, 1985), and J.K. Rowling (the “Harry Potter” series, starting in 1997). These writers have contributed significantly to literature, addressing a wide range of social, cultural, and feminist issues.
Throughout history, women writers have faced various challenges, including limited access to education, societal prejudices, and gender-based expectations. However, their perseverance and talent have broken barriers, transformed literary landscapes, and shaped the development of the novel as a genre. Today, women writers continue to make vital contributions to literature, exploring diverse themes and perspectives.
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Prose fiction is narrative written without a metrical pattern that tells an imaginary or invented story.
Although poetry and plays were important in Victorian cultural life, the period is known as the great age of the novel. The serial form of publishing, in which installments of a novel were released at regular intervals, encouraged engaged audiences. Victorian era literature was characterized by depictions of everyday people, hard lives, and moral lessons.
Suffrage is the right to vote in political elections.
Modernism is an early 20th-century movement in literature, the visual arts and music, emphasizing experimentation, abstraction and subjective experience. Philosophy, politics and social issues are also aspects of the movement which sought to change how human beings in a society interact and live together.
Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery and liberate slaves around the world.
