The Rhetoric of Women's Humour in Barbara Pym's Fiction
Published on 20. April 2021
234 pages
978-3-8382-7503-1 (ISBN)
Description
In this study of three of Barbara Pym's novels, Naghmeh Varghaiyan, drawing on examinations of women's humour by Eileen Gillooly, Regina Barreca, and others, shows how the humorous female discourse in Some Tame Gazelle, Excellent Women, and Jane and Prudence undermines patriarchal culture and subverts both female and male stereotypes such as that of the spinster and of the Byronic hero. Varghaiyan reveals how the rhetoric of women's humour enables Pym's female characters to survive in the patriarchal culture and to unsettle it.
More details
Series
Edition
New edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Berlin
Germany
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Edition type
New edition
Illustrations
Illustrations
File size
1,74 MB
ISBN-13
978-3-8382-7503-1 (9783838275031)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Naghmeh Varghaiyan
The Rhetoric of Women's Humour in Barbara Pym's Fiction
Book
04/2021
ibidem
€34.90
Shipment within 10-15 days
Persons
Naghmeh Varghaiyan is assistant professor in the Department of English Language and Literature, Agri Ibrahim Cecen University, Agri, Turkey. Her research interests include Feminism, Women's Literature, Feminist Marxist theory, and Women's Humour.
Content
- Intro
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Preface by Orna Raz
- Introduction
- 1 Characteristics of Women's Humour
- 1.1 Myth of Women's Lack of a Sense of Humour
- 1.2 Undermining Women's Wit
- 1.3 Women's Language and écriture féminine
- 1.4. Difference between Irony and Humour
- 1.5 Necessity of a Humour of One's Own
- 1.6 Humour: A Female Device?
- 1.7 Misreading Women's Humour and Images of Women
- 1.8 Lack of Ending in the Works of Women Writers
- 1.9 Differences between Conventional Humour and Women's Humour
- 1.10 Women's Humour and Socio-Cultural Restraints
- 1.11 Ideology of Domesticity and Domestic Comedy
- 1.12 Characteristics of Women's Humour
- 1.13 Major Areas and Tactics of Female Humour
- 1.14 Self-Irony
- 1.15 Women Writers' Humour in the Nineteenth Century
- 1.16 Humour as a Device of Sympathy
- 1.17 Female Humour and Narrative Structure
- 1.18 Rhetoric of Humour in Pym's Novels
- 2 Some Tame Gazelle: Construction of Women's Veiled Humour
- 2.1. Role of Rhetorical Strategies in the Construction of Women's Humour in STG
- 2.1.1. Subversion of the Romantic Plot and the Discourse of Trivia
- 2.1.2 Belinda's Double Text Discourse
- 2.1.3 Function of Gossip in the Construction of Humorous Narrative
- 2.1.4 Understatement and Self-Deprecation
- 2.1.5 Sympathetic Bond between Narrator and Heroine and among Characters
- 2.2. Function of Themes and Motifs in the Construction of Humorous Plot
- 2.2.1 Subversion of Female Stereotypes
- 2.2.2 Subversion of Male Images
- 2.3 Women's Humour as Social Critique: Undermining the Institution of Church and Clergymen
- 3 Excellent Women: Humour of Mildred Regarded as an Excellent Woman
- 3.1 Rhetorical Strategies in the Construction of Women's Humour
- 3.1.1 Understatement and Self-Deprecation
- 3.1.2 Mildred's Double-Voiced Discourse
- 3.2 Themes and Motifs in the Construction of Humorous Plot
- 3.2.1 Subversion of the Stereotype of Excellent Woman
- 3.2.2 Subversion of Male Images
- 4 Jane and Prudence: Unconventional Wife and Satisfied Spinster
- 4.1 Jane's Subversion of the Image of Conventional Clergyman's Wife
- 4.1.1 Jane's Creation of a Fantastic World
- 4.1.2 Jane's Reversal of the Role of Serving Female
- 4.1.3 Jane's and Prudence's Use of Double-Voiced Discourse
- 4.2 Subversion of the Image of the Spinster and Prudence's Creation of a Romantic World
- 4.3 Subversion of the Male Image by Exposure of Men's Indolence and Self-Indulgence
- Conclusion
- Works Cited
