Women and the Rise of Academic English Studies

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Pragmatic Criticism

Inbunden, Engelska, 2026

3 379 kr

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Women and the Rise of Academic English Studies sheds new light on the history of the academic discipline of English. It is the first book to study women scholars during what proved to be a transformational period for the study and teaching of literature, as universities across England began offering courses in English for the first time. Combining textual analysis and extensive archival research, the book unveils important findings about how the three women scholars approached their work, often against the grain of their discipline. Looking at the lives and work of three pioneering women – Q. D. Leavis, Caroline Spurgeon, and Edith Morley – it explores their critical tendencies along with the role of gender within English studies’ inaugural methods and values. Women and the Rise of Academic English Studies makes a vital contribution to our understanding of how the discipline evolved in England during the early twentieth century and offers insights to anyone interested in the history of higher education, the intellectual professions, and women’s political movements.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2026-08-07
Mått152 x 229 x undefined mm
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor216
FörlagTaylor & Francis Ltd
ISBN9781032823836

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Chapter 1: Introduction: Gender and English StudiesEntering the Ivory TowerPragmatic CriticismThree PioneersApproach and StructureChapter 2: Rogue Professionals: Women Working in English DepartmentsThe Professionalisation of Literary CriticismEdith Morley as Rogue ProfessorA Soft Option?Q. D. Leavis and the One Great Profession of MarriageTeaching as Doubled FeminisationChapter 3: Assays of Bias: Women’s Literary StatisticsObjective CriteriaA Personal Count in Caroline Spurgeon’s Shakespeare’s Imagery and What It Tells Us (1935)Political Auto-ethnography in Edith Morley’s Women Workers in Seven Professions (1914)Literary Anthropology in Q. D. Leavis’s Fiction and the Reading Public (1932)Partial ObjectivityChapter 4: The Room Behind the Mind: Queer Collegiate ReadingWomen in CollegeThe Room as Witness in Virginia Woolf’s ‘A Woman’s College from Outside’ (1926)Crypto-lesbian Affections in Dorothy Sayers’s Gaudy Night (1935)Q. D. Leavis and Academic Literary Taste Caroline Spurgeon’s Intellectual HospitalityA Place That Alters All One’s ValuesChapter 5: Miracles and Classics: Women Reading the NovelRaising Novels to the Level of ArtThe Half-forgotten Sentimental NovelCaroline Spurgeon, Q. D. Leavis, and the Miracle of Jane AustenTrained to ReproduceQ. D. Leavis and the Novelistic TraditionMore than a ClassicChapter 6: Conclusion: After the Pioneers

"Women’s entry into universities had profound effects on these hitherto masculine communities. Women and the Rise of Academic English Studies considers an important question – how did gender impact on the values and assumptions of academic disciplines? – through the lives and work of three pioneering women scholars."--Carol Dyhouse, Emeritus Professor of History, University of Sussex"Women and the Rise of Academic English Studies combines archival research with literary criticism to provide a smart and compelling new account of this vital period for the discipline. It is a much-needed re-evaluation, underpinned by meticulous investigative scholarship." --Alexandra Lawrie, Senior Lecturer in English Literature, University of Edinburgh