Democracy's Broken Promise in Fin-Desiècle British and American Women's Literature
Date
2016-06
Authors
Zabala, Christine
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Texas State University, Center for Diversity and Gender Studies
Abstract
By analyzing fin-de-siècle literature, this essay will focus on a critical examination of The Awakening, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” “Mrs. Dalloway in Bond Street,” and Passing. The emphasis will
be on the impact of women’s suffrage on women’s voices, and the way these voices are perceived
by a male-dominated democratic system. The early writings demonstrated the expectation that
women’s suffrage would translate the ability to vote into a meaningful voice in this system.
However, later texts revealed this expectation to be a false promise. This essay uses Virginia
Woolf’s, A Room of One’s Own, as one critical lens through which to read these works.
Description
Keywords
Fin-de-siècle,, women's suffrage, women's voice, male-dominated democratic system, equality, vote
Citation
Zabala, C. (2016). Democracy's broken promise in fin-desiècle British and American women's literature. <i>Journal of Research on Women and Gender, 7</i>(1), pp. 4-14.