Women's Fiction 1945-2005: Writing Romance

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Organised around each decade of the post war period, this book analyses novels written by and for women from 1945 to the present. Each chapter identifies a specific genre in popular fiction for women which marked that period and provides case studies focusing on writers and texts which enjoyed a wide readership. Despite their popularity, these novels remain largely outside the 'canon' of women's writing, and are often unacknowledged by feminist literary criticism. However, these texts clearly touched a nerve with a largely female readership, and so offer a means of charting the changes in ideals of femininity, and in the tensions and contradictions in gender identities in the post-war period. Their analysis offers new insights into the shifting demands, aspirations and expectations of what a woman could and should be over the last half century. Through her analysis of women's writing and reading, Philips sets out to challenge the distinction between 'popular' and 'literary' fiction, arguing that neat categories such as 'popular', 'middle brow' and 'serious fiction' need more careful definition.

Reviews

"Deborah Philips' study...is an invaluable text, deftly weaving literary history with cultural critique, social commentary, feminist analysis. Philips has achieved something truly remarkable in this intelligent, savvy, and provocative work of literary and cultural inspiration." - Dr. Suzette Henke, Thruston B. Morton, Sr. Professor of English, University of Louisville, USA
"Deborah Philips' study of what she terms women's "domestic romance" from 1945 to 2005 is both entertaining and perceptive, at once engaging and nicely judged. She looks at the shifting sub-genres through the decades, amongst others, single mother novels in the sixties, sex and shopping fiction in the eighties, aga sagas in the nineties, and chick-lit up to the present day. This is a welcome addition to feminist engagement in the field. Astute, full of sharp political insights and alert to recent cultural theory, it is a sparkling and persuasive account of the changing concerns and tropes of women's popular fiction." - Professor Helen Carr, Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK.
"Her study will be welcomed by many women who have also read and enjoyed 'middlebrow' novels alongside 'highbrow' counterparts. It reveals the cultural currency of feminine popular fictions, and elucidates the pleasures they offer, without denying their occasionally serious limitations." - Times Literary Supplement
"Deborah Phillips has produced a most welcome addition to the existing critical work on the "woman's novel", which is to say the novel written by women that constructs its readers as feminine...Women's Fiction 1945-2005 uses many of the approaches that we have come to associate with Cultural Studies and offers an enjoyable sense of time travel for those who are old enough to remember the decades in the second half of the twentieth century..." - Maroula Joannou, Contemporary Women's Writing

Author Bio

Deborah Philips is Professor of Literature and Cultural History at the University of Brighton, UK. Her books include Fairground Attractions (2012), The Trojan Horse (2013) with Garry Whannel and Brave New Causes (1999) with Ian Haywood.