‘The second sex’: the female body and mind in 20th and 21st century women’s writing

Hewitt, Kirsty Louise (2019) ‘The second sex’: the female body and mind in 20th and 21st century women’s writing. MLitt(R) thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

‘Presence in the world vigorously implies the positing of a body that is both a thing of the world and a point of view on this world’ - Simone de Beauvoir

This thesis will use works by two Modernist and two contemporary authors - Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield, and Jeanette Winterson and Ali Smith respectively - to test Simone de Beauvoir’s hypothesis. Each chapter will focus upon one of these authors, and will explore representations of the interior and exterior worlds of female characters to see whether these elements can ever be separated, and what the implications of this would be. I will also examine gender, sexuality, femininity, and the differing ways in which a body can be presented, as well as the multiplicity of self. The texts used in this thesis are "Orlando", "To the Lighthouse", and "Between the Acts" by Woolf; ‘Prelude’, ‘Bliss’, and ‘Pictures’ by Mansfield; "Lighthousekeeping" and "Written on the Body" by Winterson; and ‘The ex-wife’ and ‘The human claim’ by Smith, both of which were published in "Public Library and Other Stories".

• Item Type: Thesis (MLitt(R))
• Qualification Level: Masters
• Keywords: Women, Writing, Fiction, Existence, Existentialism, Modernist, contemporary, Simone de Beauvoir, Katherine Mansfield, Virginia Woolf, Jeanette Winterson, Ali Smith, Presence, body, mind, gender, sexuality, femininity, multiplicity, selfhood, novels, Orlando, To the Lighthouse, Between the Acts, Prelude, Bliss, Pictures, Womanhood, Lighthousekeeping, Written on the Body, The ex-wife, The human claim, Public Library and Other Stories.
• Subjects: P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General); P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN0080 Criticism; P Language and Literature > PR English literature
• Colleges/Schools: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies > English Literature
• Supervisor's Name: Randall, Dr. Bryony and Stoddart, Dr. Helen
• Date of Award: 2019
• Depositing User: Miss Kirsty Hewitt
• Unique ID: glathesis:2019-74335
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 10 Jun 2020 07:21
• Last Modified: 10 Jun 2020 07:24
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/74335