Daughters of Dionysus : women writers and the dark side of late-victorian hellenism

This thesis examines the relationship of women writers to Hellenism in the latenineteenth century. In recent years critics have tended to focus on women's exclusion from the study and interpretation of classical literature and culture. Yet, I contend that the proliferation of Greek subjects in women's literature from the middle of the century onwards, suggest a collective movement into the classical tradition by women writers and scholars, rather than comprehensive exclusion from it. Indeed, this thesis focuses on the 1880s, when Hellenism was, once again, a la mode. As my title indicates, I propose that women"s contributions to 'Victorian Hellenism' can be conceived of as subversively Dionysian. Dionysus, the paradoxical Greek god of drama, of irrationality, gender confusion and fervent female rites, can be seen to personify the seditious Hellenism of the women writers in this study. Concentrating on the 'dark side' of Victorian Hellenism, I analyse the appropriation of transgressive, violent female figures from ancient Greek literature and myth, by Amy Levy, 'Michael Field' and Emily Pfeiffer. In so doing, I reveal the extent to which Hellenism was employed as a means to protest against and comment upon contemporary social and political institutions. I suggest that these women appropriated classical female figures in order to challenge the authority of ancient cultural models, by resisting and revising accepted paradigms. Furthermore, I demonstrate that women writers employ transgressive figures, not just as figures of rage, but as exemplars of women's strength, ingenuity and intellectual abilities. This thesis tracks the various trajectories of influence and the interplay of interests in women"s Hellenic writing of the late Victorian period. The writers in this study wrote using a variety of forms and techniques and they differed in terms of their subjects and their intentions. For instance, in 'Xantippe, ' Amy Levy exposes the gendered nature of Hellenic discourse, whilst in her closet drama 'Medea, ' I suggest that Levy combines her interest in feminism with her concerns about racial and religious intolerance. In contrast, 'Michael Field' focuses on the issues of sexuality and gender. In the volumes Bellerophon, Callirhoe and Long Ago Bradley and Cooper can be seen to explore the concepts of (female) desire and pleasure, as suggested by ancient paradigms. Emily Pfeiffer, on the other hand, finds the literary counterparts to her own frustrated desires for social and political equality in the figures of Cassandra and Clytemnestra. Pfeiffer also compares the oppression of women in the ancient Greek world with the struggles of modem British women for social and political emancipation in her fascinating travelogue, Fýying Leaves from East and West. What these writers have in common is that their Hellenism is woman-centred. Consequently, this thesis not only demonstrates the heterogeneity of 'Hellenisms' in women's writing of the late-nineteenth century, but also highlights the progressive political potential of the discourse of Hellenism for womenEThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceRobinson Library, University of NewcastleGBUnited Kingdo

‘The hot-house of decadent chronicle’: Michael Field and the dance of modern verse-drama

This article examines Michael Field's avant-guard poetic dramas post 1895, in particular the Roman Trilogy (The World at Auction, The Race of Leaves, and Julia Domna), to suggest they should be read for their extraordinary poetic experimentation, which precedes, prefigures and is at the heart of modernism's innovations in the genre. It argues that influenced by the works of Friedrich Nietzsche, particularly The Birth of Tragedy, Michael Field turned to Latin decadence and to contemporary German philology to re-energise the genre. The essay also suggests that the Trilogy's emphasis on dance foreshadows the impact of Ballet Russes on modern aesthetics

Michael Field's dramatically queer family dynamics

Dwelling on his friendship with the late nineteenth-century writers Katharine Bradley (1846–1914) and Edith Cooper (1862–1913), the writer and critic Logan Pearsall Smith described the quietly attired, rigidly mannered women as “full of grandiose passions, dreadful deeds of lust and horror, incest and assassination, hells of jealousy and great empires tottering to their fall” (87). Pearsall Smith’s vivid description of Bradley and Cooper suggests a delightfully entertaining couple who, despite appearances, seem to have reveled in vivid historical tales of sexual and familial betrayal. In fact, under the pseudonymous identity of “Michael Field,” Bradley and Cooper collaboratively wrote about lustful deeds and hellish jealousies in twenty-seven dramas over a period of almost thirty years. What is more, the immaculately attired Victorian ladies were aunt and niece, a devoted couple who lived the majority of their lives together. This chapter will not only explore the familial context of Bradley and Cooper’s relationship but also the violent and conflicted familial relationships in the Roman dramas of Michael Field. In so doing, I hope to show how in their lives and in their work, Bradley and Cooper developed decidedly queer family dynamics, designed to challenge and re-envision conventional notions of family, identity, morality, and desire

Libidinous laureates and lyrical maenads : Michael Field, Swinburne and erotic Hellenism

In 1889 “Michael Field”—the pseudonymous identity of Katharine Bradley and Edith Cooper—published Long Ago, a volume of lyric poetry based on the extant Sapphic fragments. In deference to the poet whom they called the “guardian” of the “Lesbian lyrics,” Bradley and Cooper sent a copy of Long Ago to Algernon Swinburne, together with a short letter: With flaming sword you have kept guard over the Lesbian lyrics; I have passed by you & touched the sacred things, & though I know my rifling to have been “sad & mad & bad,” it has been to me “so sweet” that, unrepentant as I recross the barrier, I lay my spoil in your hands. Fiery vengeance take if you will, Poet of Anactoria. I shall not strive but remain as before Yours in sincere admiration, Michael Field This brief note is illuminating in a number of respects, not least because Michael Field reveal that they were devotees of the work of Swinburne. In fact Bradley and Cooper considered Swinburne to be the best poet in England and a worthy successor to the Poet Laureate. Sharing Swinburne’s love of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, the women were avid readers of Swinburne’s critical writing and they were interested in the same kind of dramatic models. In a number of cases, Michael Field treated the same dramatic subjects as Swinburne, including Mary Stuart, Sappho, and Tristan de Leonois