Domesticating the Typewriter
Historically speaking, women authors have hesitated to take up the pen. Critics writing about nineteenth-century English literature have pointed to the feelings of fear and guilt that deterred a woman from assuming a public role as an author – fear of male hostility or condescension, guilt and fear...
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| Published in | The Typewriter Century p. 172 |
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| Main Author | |
| Format | Book Chapter |
| Language | English |
| Published |
University of Toronto Press
01.02.2021
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| Online Access | Get full text |
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| Summary: | Historically speaking, women authors have hesitated to take up the pen. Critics writing about nineteenth-century English literature have pointed to the feelings of fear and guilt that deterred a woman from assuming a public role as an author – fear of male hostility or condescension, guilt and fear about trespassing into male territory and defying society’s expectations of a “proper lady.”¹ This chapter must consider how far such inhibitions dissipated in the twentieth century and how far, as Mary Poovey pessimistically put it, ideological constraints on female autonomy remain “sedimented deep in the layers of our culture and our consciousness.”² |
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| ISBN: | 9781487525736 1487525737 |
| DOI: | 10.3138/9781487537821-012 |