Alone together: gender and alienation in the novels of Barbara Pym
Date
1991
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Doctoral
Abstract
In Barbara Pym's distinctive fictional world, the designation of gender roles
governs and regulates any and all activity. Closer examination suggests a less
conventional interpretation, one that questions the patriarchal ordering inherent to
the system. Though Pym may not accommodate the label of feminist novelist, her
novels reveal the disparities attendant upon gender stereotyping.
Barbara Pym is an inheritor of the tradition exemplified in the novels of
Jane Austen, most notably in the utilization of the "marriage plot". Implicit within
this fictional device is the promise of marriage at the close, the heroine's hard-won
reward for good behaviour. Though Pym's deceptively reticent heroines may
harbour some hope of this resolution, few trust the mythology that informs the
marriage plot. In consequence, the novels rest on a seeming paradox. They are
defined by the rules that govern the conventional romance, but committed to
exposing their patent absurdity. Although Pym uses the marriage plot and does
not advocate a radical reordering of society, she recognizes that both sexes are
victimized by expectations reflected in the marriage plot and maintained through
rigid social gradations.
The early novels treat the subject of gender with Pym's distinctive blend of
detached humour and irony. The later works, while maintaining this property,
are tinged with a steadily darkening vision. In this context, the theme of
community intrudes more insistently, to gain precedence in the final works. In
them, Pym evokes a society increasingly estranged from itself and its past. In
this alienated society, the "excellent women" become the repositories and
custodians of the custom and ceremony that typify Pym's unique world, and
serve as a mediating influence between past, present, and future. Pym envisages
a society more feminized than feminist, one that respects the challenge of
difference as it is epitomized in gender, but recognizes that only community will
ensure survival.
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Degree
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Department
English
Program
English