Women's University Fiction, 1880-1945

Women's University Fiction, 1880-1945 Synopsis

The rise of the middle classes brought a sharp increase in the number of young men and women able to attend university. Developing in the wake of this increase, the university novel often centred on male undergraduates at either Oxford or Cambridge. Bogen argues that an analysis of the lesser known female narratives can provide new insights into education, religion, politics, literary culture and sexuality. Works by Virginia Woolf, Rosamond Lehman and Vera Brittain - as well as many forgotten writers - are used as case studies and are set in their literary and historical context. The female university novel is shown to be less a universal tale of coming-of-age and more fraught with struggle and compromise.