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Victorian period women writers


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During the Victorian period, women writers

were measured against a social rather than a

literary ideal. Hence, it was widely thought that

novels by women should be modest, religious,

(5) sensitive, guileless, and chase, like their authors.

Many Victorian women writers took exception to

this belief, however, resisting the imposition of

nonliterary restrictions on their work. Publishers

soon discovered that the gentlest and most iddylike

(10) female novelists were tough-minded and relentless

when their professional integrity was at stake.

Keenly aware of their artistic responsibilities,

these women writers would not make concessions

to secure commercial success.

(15) The Brontes, George Eliot, Elizabeth Barrett

Browning, and their lesser-known contemporaries

repudiated, in their professional lives, the cour-

tesy that Victorian ladies might exact from Victorian

gentlemen. Desiring rigorous and impartial

(20) criticism, most women writers did not wish

reviewers to be kind to them if kindness meant

overlooking their literary weaknesses or flattering

them on their accomplishments simply because of

their sex. They had expected derisive reviews;

(25) instead, they found themselves confronted with

generous criticism, which they considered con-

descending. Elizabeth Barrett Browning labeled

it “the comparative respect which means...

absolute scorn."

(30) For their part, Victorian crities were virtually

obsessed with finding the place of the woman writer

so as to judge her appropriately. Many bluntly

admitted that they thought Jane Eyre a masterpiece

if written by a man, shocking or disgusting if

(35) written by a woman. Moreover, reactionary

reviewers were quick to associate an independent

heroine with carefully concealed revolutionary

doctrine; several considered Jane Eyre a radical

feminist document, as indeed it was. To Charlotte

(40) Bronte, who had demanded dignity and independence

without any revolutionary intent and who considered

herself politically conservative, their criticism was

an affront. Such criticism bunched all women

writers together rather than treating them as individual

(45) artists.

Charlotte Bronte's experience served as a

warning to other women writers about the projudices

that immediately associated them with feminists and

others thought to be political radicals. Irritated,

(50) and anxious to detach themselves from a group

stereotype, many expressed relatively conservative

views on the emancipation of women (except on the subject

of women's education) and stressed their

own domestic accomplishments. However, in

(55) identifying themselves with women who had chosen

the traditional career path of marriage and mother-

hood, these writers encountered still another threat

to their creativity. Victorian prudery rendered

virtually all experience that was uniquely feminine

(60) unprintable. No nineteenth-century woman dared to

describe childbirth, much less her sexual passion.

Men could not write about their sexual experiences

either, but they could write about sport, business,

crime, and war-all activities from which women

(65) were barred. Small wonder no woman produced a

novel like War and Peace. What is amazing is the

sheer volume of first-rate prose and poetry that

Victorian women did write.

 

 

8. It can be inferred from the passage that a Victorion woman writer who did not consider herself a feminist would most probably have approved of women's

(A) entering the noncombat military

(B) entering the publishing business

© entering a university

(D) joining the stock exchange

(E) joining a tennis club

 

Can anyone explain the correct answer with related quotes / clues from the passage?

 

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I would go with C.

 

Support from the passage is in two places. The first indicates that these writers were not conservative on the subject of women's education

line 48:

... associated them with feminists and

others thought to be political radicals. Irritated,

and anxious to detach themselves from a group

stereotype, many expressed relatively conservative

views on the emancipation of women (except on the subject

of women's education)

 

The second clue pretty much rules out all the other answer choices, for women who did not consider themselves feminists:

line 63:

... about sport, business, crime, and war-all activities from which women were barred.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 4 years later...

As correctly pointed put by Ursula ..

 

For this Q, there are 3 parties -

1. feminists and political radicals - their views are radical and NOT conservative.

2. women writers - wnated they NOT be called "feminists and political radicals ".. so they supported conservative views EXCEPT for women's education , for which the views of feminists, ppolitical radicals and women writets matched .

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As correctly pointed put by Ursula ..

 

For this Q, there are 3 parties -

1. feminists and political radicals - their views are radical and NOT conservative.

2. women writers - wnated they NOT be called "feminists and political radicals ".. so they supported conservative views EXCEPT for women's education , for which the views of feminists, ppolitical radicals and women writets matched .

 

 

i agree with both of the ursla logic but the same logic support the entry in to tennis club

1. non conservative'

2. support ......pol, bussines and sports.......

 

both business and sports are equally placed then why only businees and not sports

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