A generous, invigorating analysis of a powerful voice. Stella Deen’s book vividly recounts how Clemence Dane secured authority as a literary critic by reconceiving the essay form, parrying the increasing power of academic critics and teaching her audience to become discerning readers, open to innovation but grounded in tradition. Rigorously researched and a pleasure to read.
- Patrick Collier, Ball State University,
Clemence Dane and Good Housekeeping: Modernity and Common Reading examines Dane's tenure as a literary critic for Good Housekeeping between 1923 and 1933, firmly locating it within a vibrant interwar periodical culture. By expressing confidence in a shared literary heritage, modelling enjoyment of a wide variety of literature and linking women's reading habits to the revitalisation of national literary culture, Dane's serial essays implicitly challenged academic and modernist approaches to literature. Moreover, Dane's monthly book pages, in dialogue with book authors and with other feminist contributors, fulfilled and exceeded Good Housekeeping's mission by preparing women for their new responsibilities as British citizens. Dane's journalism sheds new light on the heterogeneity intrinsic to quality domestic magazines and the roles they played in fostering women's multi-faceted modern identities. Stella Deen demonstrates that Dane's corpus of Good Housekeeping essays makes a significant contribution to the conceptualisation of the common reader and to the history of twentieth-century literary criticism.
Les mer
The first full study of Clemence Dane’s literary criticism for Good Housekeeping.
List of Figures
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Clemence Dane, Modernity and Interwar Periodical Culture
1. Books That Endure
2. Common Readers and the Varied Pleasures of Reading
3. The History of Ourselves: Cultural, Rural and Matriarchal Legacies
4. The Boundary Stones of Belief
5. The Voice of Women
Works Cited
Index
Les mer
Analyzes a substantial and influential body of literary criticism in Good Housekeeping
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781399516907
Publisert
2025-04-30
Utgiver
Edinburgh University Press; Edinburgh University Press
Høyde
234 mm
Bredde
156 mm
Aldersnivå
UP, 05
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Forfatter