Queen Caroline’s pains and penalties: Silence and speech in the dramatic art of British women’s suffrage

In Britain, the act that launched the militant campaign of the suffragettes in 1905 was the interruption of a political meeting in Manchester. The violent silencing and arrest of the women ensued. The women’s suffrage campaigns in Britain became more vigorous in the early twentieth century. They frequently foregrounded the oppressive silencing of women in their political speeches at public meetings, in newspapers, and in the courts. Having deliberately sought arrest, some militant suffrage activists exploited the arena of the court room to expound on their political position. In various audacious and spectacular ways, the exclusion of women from the democratic process was challenged, not least by a sustained attack on the legal system. Drama, one of the more successful cultural forms of protest, was often used to expose the inequities of the existing social fabric, and as an aesthetic form it deploys the body as well as the voice. This paper will examine the forceful, anti-rhetorical function of silence in British women’s suffrage drama from the early twentieth century, focusing on the appropriation of Queen Caroline (1768–1821) as a silent proto-suffragette in Pains and Penalties, a play about her trial, written by Laurence Housman (1865–1959) and directed by Edith Craig for the Pioneer Players theatre society

Becoming plant and posthumanism in Jeff Noon's Pollen (1995)

This article examines Jeff Noon’s cyberpunk novel Pollen (1995), arguing for its innovative treatment of spatial and species identities. In addition to the challenging representations of gender and feminism identified by Val Gough, there are other kinds of decentering enacted, notably in the novel’s speculative treatment of “becoming plant” and the location of the action in the North of England

Hrotsvit 2014: Pageants and Pioneers

This document forms the programme for an interdisciplinary international symposium on the playwright Hrotsvit, which was held at the University of Hull on Saturday 31st May 2014

Introduction : contemporary fiction

Contemporary fiction has to address all manner of uncertainties. Those brought about by scientific developments and related social changes are possibly most acute in novels which experiment with the new science of cloning and reproductive technologies. Here there is often an explicit exploration of what it means to be human. As Eva Sabine Zehelein’s article shows, the capability of science to replace sexual reproduction is explored as a potentially liberating idea by the scientist-author, Carl Djerassi. His novel provides a means of educating the reader about science as well as providing a testing-ground for the ethical issues which face today’s scientists. Notably it is the long-term effects of scientific inventions in reproductive technologies which require hard thinking today. While these concerns will be considered by scientists and legislators, they are certainly being tested in the relative freedom of the novel. Thus Eva Hoffmann’s The Secret demonstrates that, to some extent, it is the clone who exposes what is taken for granted as human. Susan Stuart illustrates here the critical perspective offered by this novel. Whatever scientific interventions and biological crafting are involved in the creation of new life, the complexity of the decisions and actions of the life created provides a rich source of narrative exploration, especially in the bildungsroman form

Dr Mary Murdoch (1864-1916) and the 'Heart of Hull' : Campaigning for women's suffrage, education and health care

Abstract: Dr Mary Murdoch, the first female GP in Hull, was a highly respected and controversial campaigner for improvements in the health care of women and children. This talk will examine some aspects of Murdoch’s life and work in the wider context of women’s suffrage politics

The collected letters of Ellen Terry. Vol.1, 1865-1888

Ellen Terry (1847–1928) was one of the first modern stars of the British stage. She toured America and Australia and was adored by the public, and has become an icon of Victorian womanhood. A transitional figure, Terry straddled both the Victorian and the modern world. But the controversies of Terry’s private life were numerous: elopement, cohabitation, single-motherhood, multiple marriages – two with significant age differences – yet she maintained the reputation of a thoroughly feminine woman of the age. Terry’s correspondence was both exuberant and extensive. Despite falling victim to selective destruction, the remaining letters provide a fascinating insight into the dynamics of the Victorian theatre, as well as the difficulties of life for a woman maintaining a successful public persona whilst raising two illegitimate children. The collection brings together material from across the world, and includes letters to many famous addressees – Bram Stoker and George Bernard Shaw among them – as well as many lesser- or unknown recipients who often get the best of Terry’s playful prose