Women's Studies Commons^™

Review Of George Eliot, Ian Sutton

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

This is the first of a series which will 'take full account of contemporary literary theory, providing collections of key modern readings of major authors.... Among the critical positions represented are British poststructuralism, deconstruction, feminism, psychoanalysis, Marxism and new historicism'.

Do not despair, however. Things are not quite as bad as they sound. Most of the essays here can be understood with a bit of effort and most of those are worth the effort. They have been carefully chosen not only to include the main schools of criticism but also to cover the whole range of George Eliot's work, and …

Message Of Greeting From The Fellowship President, Jonathan G. Ouvry

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

This year I write my annual greeting to the Fellowship between two very special occasions. Last June we celebrated in Westminster Abbey the Tenth Anniversary of the unveiling of the Memorial Stone. The occasion was made particularly memorable by the participation of Dean Edward Carpenter (now retired) who had taken such an active and positive part in the original installation of the stone. As on past occasions he gave a fascinating, scholarly and apparently quite spontaneous gem of a talk, for which we were and are most grateful.

The second special occasion, to which I am looking forward with what …

Technology And Development: Opposition To The Railway In Middlemarch, Paul H. Lorenz

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

In Book 6 (chapter 56) of Middlemarch, George Eliot presents a scene in which the citizens of the hamlet of Frick set upon a group of railway surveyors, "the enemies of mankind”, with hayforks. The surveyors escape with their lives only through the intervention of Caleb Garth and Fred Vincy. This incident allows Eliot to discuss the attitudes of the working classes towards the technological developments of the Industrial Revolution and to contrast these attitudes with those of the middle class. While middle class women "regarded travelling by steam as presumptuous and dangerous", the local landowners, who had the vote …

Westminster Abbey Wreath-Laying, Bill Adams

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

It seems incredible that it is now eleven years since the very exciting and moving day in June 1980 when a great congregation of some seven hundred people witnessed the consecration of this memorial to George Eliot. In the years before, the Fellowship Council had to make some momentous decisions. Among the most important was the choice of an inscription for the stone - words which would be on view here in the Abbey to millions of visitors for perhaps hundreds of years into the future. We needed to find a phrase which came as close as possible to an …

Obituary: Ann Robson- Curator Of Nuneaton Museum And Art Gallery, Ann Robson

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

Ann Robson had just passed her 32nd birthday when she died a few days before Christmas 1990. She was born in South Shields in October 1958. She learned to play the piano and was particularly fond of the Christmas carol' Away in a Manager'. The singing of this carol at her memorial service at the end of December was, therefore, particularly poignant. She had a passion for horses, as did so many girls of her generation, and this interest remained with her into her adult life. She was educated at Doncaster Grammar School and in 1977 went to Durham University …

Review Of George Eliot's Selected Essays, Poems And Other Writings, Graham Handley, A.S. Byatt

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

In 1963 Thomas Pinney published his edition of The Essays of George Eliot, a meticulous, scholarly and conservative selection. It was a major contribution to George Eliot studies, coming as it did in the wake of her rediscovery, more properly re-evaluation, through F.R. Leavis, Joan Bennett, Barbara Hardy, W.J. Harvey and others. Gordon Haight had discovered her for himself in the 1930' s, and devoted the rest of his life to editing her letters, writing her biography, encouraging scholars and critics and initiating the Clarendon edition of her works. Pinney is in the immediate Haight tradition, clear, concise, admirably relevant: …

George Eliot And Greek Tragedy, P.E. Easterling

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

A quotation from Romola in S. H. Butcher's essay on Sophoc1es (1891) first led me to George Eliot as a reader of Greek tragedy:

Our deeds are like children that are born to us; they live and act apart from our will: nay, children may be strangled, but deeds never; they have an indestructible life both in and out of our consciousness. (Ch. 16)

The intensity of the language used here matches that of the Aeschylean contexts that must have been Eliot's ultimate model;2 it implies a close imaginative contact which can perhaps help to enrich our own reading of …

Annual Report, Kathleen Adams

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

An uneventful Annual General Meeting in March began our year and was followed by a much more stimulating AGM of the Alliance of Literary Societies in Birmingham on April 20th, when a party from the Fellowship attended and had the pleasure of meeting members of other literary societies with whom we could exchange ideas. The Alliance President, Gabriel Woolf, addressed the meeting and spoke with feeling about the need to educate our young people in the literature of the past - a sentiment echoed a few days later by the Prince of Wales.

On April 26th we attended the official …

Review Of George Eliot's Midlands: Passion In Exile, Graham Handley

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

Various biographies and critical studies argue that Mary Ann or Marian Evans's formative years in the Midlands influenced George Eliot's art. They do so by explaining that memories of Robert Evans contributed to George Eliot's conceptions of Adam Bede and Caleb Garth, that Cheverel Manor is Arbury Hall, that Amos Barton is largely based on the Rev. John Gwyther, the curate of Chilvers Coton whom Mary Ann knew as a child, that a good deal of autobiographical material went into the creation of Maggie Tulliver, and so on.

Is there a need, then, for Graham Handley's George Eliot's Midlands when …

Review Of G.H. Lewes: A Life, Beryl Gray, Rosemary Ashton

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

For a very long time, George Henry Lewes's reputation has centred on the fact that, for the last 25 years of his life, he was George Eliot's partner. Not a vast number of people have cared to know very much about him beyond an idea, perhaps, that he was a rather freewheeling journalist who produced a Life of Goethe, and that he was free-thinking and - at least until he took up with George Eliot - somewhat free-living. It is gratifying, therefore, that this highly intelligent, quick and versatile, immensely fair-minded man who loved science as much as he loved …

Audio Cassette Review, Ruth Harris, Gabriel Woolf

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

Gabriel WooIf' s second cassette of readings from George Eliot begins and ends with her poetry. However we assess the value of her poems, there can be no doubt that they raise issues that were fundamental to her. Nor can there be any doubt that the poetry is illuminated for us by the voice of the reader. His tenderly nostalgic interpretation of the Brother and Sister sequence is enlivened by glints of humour as George Eliot describes her devoted dependence on her "little man / Of forty inches", or reveals her excitement when she catches the' 'silver perch" - her …

Review Of George Eliot (Marian Evans): A Literary Life, Kerry Mcsweeney

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

Many publishers run series of 'introductions' to English literature - handy roll-calls of the canon, beginning with Chaucer and ending with Virginia Woolf or thereabouts - and inevitably George Eliot has to be there. One is, of course, glad for the small army of academics for whom gainful employment is thus provided, but the question naturally arises whether so many books covering the same ground serve any useful purpose.

In Professor McSweeney's case the answer is yes. His book is rewarding because he is sufficiently master of his subject to make it his own. He forms his own judgements, chooses …

Review Of The Mill On The Floss, Michelene Wandor

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

In the radio dramatization of a novel, it is left to the actors to persuade us that they are the individuals whose roles they undertake, but it remains the responsibility of the scriptwriter to select and organize those roles with respect for the overall vision of the originating artist. How well, then, did Radio Four's recent five-episode dramatization of The Mill on the Floss serve George Eliot?

It is axiomatic that, without Maggie Tulliver, there would be no Mill on the Floss; but, in this most autobiographical of George Eliot's novels, it is not Maggie who is omnipresent, but the …

Annual Report 1990

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

The year opened, as it always does, with the least exciting event - the Annual General Meeting. All four officers were re-elected and we also re-elected for a further three year term our supportive and generous President Jonathan Ouvry.

The next event was much more exciting. In April Gabriel Woolf made his 21st annual visit to Warwickshire to present the ever popular programme of Readings from the novels. 'Enter the Aunts' proved to be one of the most popular he has ever done, and his own sense of humour and sensitivity of selection made the most of those wonderful aunts, …

Review Of Meriden: Its People And Houses Part 1, Doreen M.K. Agutter

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

This publication, said to be 'the first book ever written about Meriden', has come to our attention because of 'The George Eliot Connection' and because it was researched and written by a member of the George Eliot Fellowship. The historical research, dating back to the Middle Ages, is very thorough, and there are numerous photographs, plans and maps. The prose is somewhat breathless, as if copious notes have been written up with great rapidity, and this impairs its clarity. There are some errors in proof: the Clarkes, not the Evanses, must have been living at The Cottage in 1850. The …

Sonnet For George Eliot, Ralph E. Avery

The George Eliot Review Online, ISSN: 2831-5375

Great George, when she was youthful Mary Ann,

Strove faithfully to read the mind of God.

At length she sought Him in the soul of Man,

As Trinity’s sweet garden path she trod.

And so with strong, diffusive, voice she sings

The need for each to love his fellow man.

To us her caring soul great comfort brings,

And urges us to do the best we can

To buoy the sinking heart, assuage the wound.

Her passionate art transcends the written word;

True, lasting immortality she’s found;

Sweet echoes of her love can still be heard.

So has she joined …

Marge Piercy's Small Changes: Welcome To The Sexual Revolution, Nancy Topping Bazin

English Faculty Publications

Marge Piercy's novel Small Changes is encyclopedic in its incredibly detailed, all-encompassing feminist analysis of female and male behavior in the late 60's and early 70's. The behavior of the younger generation is compared and contrasted with that of their parents. The overall impression given by the novel is that, despite the very different life-styles of the two generations, very little change has, in fact, occurred. At the end of the novel, sexism prevails and no significant threat to male control of the power structure has developed. From examination of the title, Piercy seems to place her emphasis not upon …

Women And Revolution In Dystopian Fiction: Nadine Gordimer's July's People And Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Nancy Topping Bazin

English Faculty Publications

Nadine Gordimer's July's People (1981) and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale (1985) are both dystopias, nightmare visions of the future. Both of the worlds depicted come into being because of revolutionary coups. However, in both cases, the revolutions were in progress long before the actual takeovers, and there were opportunities for citizens to have prevented these dystopian situations from coming to pass. Yet, because changing the direction of political events requires energy, solidarity, bravery or at least some self-sacrifice, most citizens are reluctant to become involved. Nadine Gordimer and Margaret Atwood understand this attitude because they have felt that way …

Transforming The Curriculum, The Mission Statement, The Strategic Goals: A Success Story, Nancy Topping Bazin

Women's & Gender Studies Faculty Publications

Old Dominion University, a state university in Norfolk, Virginia, enrolling approximately 16,000 students, has successfully established the goal of achieving diversity in what is taught, who does the teaching, and who is being taught. Since 1986, faculty have had to include the perspectives, contributions, and concerns of women, minorities, and/or non-Western cultures¹ in courses that fulfill general education requirements. The university's mission statement and its strategic goals emphasize curriculum transformation and the attraction of more women and male minorities into the faculty and student body. In its 1989 report, the Virginia Commission on the University of the 21st Century …

[Introduction To] Writing The Woman Artist: Essays On Poetics, Politics, And Portraiture, Suzanne W. Jones

Bookshelf

The essays in this collection explore the many ways in which women writers have seen and dreamed the woman artist as a character in their works. In describing this character, her struggles and her visions, we as feminist critics run the risk of prescribing her, and yet failing to name her means failing to know her. We confront this difficulty not by defining the woman artist figure but by identifying many. Recognizing as Teresa De Lauretis has suggested that the social construction of gender is "a common denominator" among women, we examine the different representations of the woman artist figure …

Post-Colonial Feminism And The Veil: Considering The Differences, Lama Abu-Odeh

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Since the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the issue of the veil has been the topic of heated debate in Muslim countries; particularly in those countries that witnessed strong fundamentalist movements. Until then, adopting the veil had been the individual choice of Muslim women. The fact that the Islamicists who took power in Iran sanctioned the veil, and penalized those women who chose not to wear it, was a seductive, or alternatively a terrifying, reminder to women in other Muslim countries of what it might be like as a woman under Islamic rule. In countries such as Jordan, Algeria, and Egypt, …

Uncoverings: The Research Papers Of The American Quilt Study Group, Volume 12 (1991), Laurel Horton, Michael Kile, Rod Kiracofe, Lawrence Howe, Catherine E. Cerny, Vista Anne Mahan, William J. Riffe, Pat L. Nickols, Clover Nolan Williams, Valerie Wilson, Varyn M. Kendra, Kyle Emily Ciani

Uncoverings Journal

Dedication:Michael Kile (1947-1991) by Rod Kiracofe

Preface by Laurel Horton

Research Papers

A Text of the Times: The NAMES Project by Lawrence Howe

A Quilt Guild: Its Role in the Elaboration of Female Identity by Catherine A. Cerny

Quilts used as Backdrops in Old Photographs by Vista Anne Mahan

Brain Dominance and Quilters: A Small Group Study by William J. Riffe

Mary A. McElwain: Quilter and Quilt Businesswoman by Pat L. Nickols

Tradition and Art: Two Layers of Meaning in the Bloomington Quilters Guild by Clover Nolan Williams

Quiltmaking in Counties Antrim and Down: Preliminary Findings from the Ulster Quilt …

A Study Of Issues And Problems Women Face In Attempting To Pursue Careers In Educational Administration In Kenya, Bertha Kirigo Mutai

Dissertations

Problem

In Kenya, the majority of women in education occupy classroom teaching positions. Educational officers, in their hiring practices, appear to overlook women as resources, thereby depriving the schools of the skills and talents of potentially capable leaders. Students are also denied the role models of female leaders. This study investigates how difficult it is for women to secure professional careers in educational administration in Kenya.

Method

The population consisted of all the female teachers employed by the Ministry of Education in Kenya, and female Kenyan students in North American universities. A questionnaire was used to collect data from the …