Metaphors for Change: the Narrative Power of Domestic Space in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century British Women’s Writing

Goodman, Jacqueline Elizabeth

Abstract

Domestic spaces carry layers of meaning. They evidence structural changes over time, representing different social and economic ideologies and priorities. Their spatial organisation affects the way that life is conducted within them. They are the physical sites of the complex elements that combine to create ‘home’. This thesis draws on theories of architecture, space, place, culture and society to explain how domestic settings reflect the psychological position of women protagonists who, for one reason or another, experience a personal imperative for change. It explores the notion of ‘home’, how living spaces and their contents are intimately connected with the experiences of the women who inhabit them and provide metaphors that illuminate moments of personal, social, political or economic change. The novels selected for study were written by women authors between the mid-nineteenth to late twentieth centuries, providing a time frame that encompasses major social changes including the Industrial Revolution, two World Wars and first- and second-wave feminist movements. The effect of such events on the positions and aspirations of individual women are reflected in the narratives of the selected novels. The thesis is structured in chapters that categorise the novels according to the conditions under which habitation occurs. This structure also provides a chronology, starting with the ordered spaces of the country house in the mid-nineteenth-century, moving on to consider borrowed spaces in rented accommodation in the interbellum and post-World War Two, serviced spaces accommodating paying guests between the 1930s and the 1970s, and finally the shared spaces of hostels, bedsits, families and communes between 1960 and 1985. The novels discussed in this thesis tell the stories of women who are considered transgressive because they try to break away from conventional living patterns. The domestic spaces they occupy carry meanings that reflect a state of being at a point of uncertainty or change.

Citation

Goodman, J. E. (2020). Metaphors for Change: the Narrative Power of Domestic Space in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century British Women’s Writing. (Thesis). University of Hull. Retrieved from https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4420801

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Oct 18, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 18, 2023
• Keywords: English
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4420801
• Additional Information: Department of English; University of Hull
• Award Date: Feb 1, 2020