Colonial Girlhood in Literature, Culture and History, 1840-1950

by Moruzi, Kristine; Smith, Michelle J.

• ISBN13: 9781137356345
• ISBN10: 1137356340
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2014-09-29
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Colonial Girlhood in Literature, Culture and History, 1840-1950 explores a range of real and fictional colonial girlhood experiences from Jamaica, Mauritius, South Africa, India, New Zealand, Australia, England, Ireland, and Canada to reflect on the transitional state of girlhood between childhood and adulthood. The interconnected themes of colonialism, empire, gender, race, and class show how colonial girls occupy ambivalent positions in British and settler societies between 1840 and 1950. Although girlhood is often linked to freedom, independence, novelty, and modernity, it may also represent an idea that needs to be contained and controlled to serve the needs of the nation. Across national boundaries, the malleability of colonial girlhoods is evident. Drawing on a range of approaches including history, anthropology, and literary and cultural studies, this book reflects on the complexities of girlhood during the colonial era.

Author Biography

Dr Kristine Moruzi is a lecturer at Deakin University, Australia, in the School of Communication and Creative Arts and a research fellow at Deakin's Centre for Memory, Imagination and Invention. She is the author of Constructing Girlhood through the Periodical Press, 1850-1915.

Dr Michelle Smith is a Research Fellow in the Centre for Memory, Imagination and Invention at Deakin University, Australia. She is the author of Empire in British Literature and Culture: Imperial Girls, 1880-1915, which won the 2012 European Society for the Study of English prize for best first book.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Notes on the Contributors
1.Colonial Girlhood/Colonial Girls; Kristine Moruzi and Michelle J. Smith
PART I: THEORISING THE COLONIAL GIRL
2.Colonialism: What Girlhoods Can Tell Us; Angela Woollacott
3.Fashioning the Colonial Girl: 'Made in Britain' Femininity in the Imperial Archive; Cecily Devereux
PART II: ROMANCE AND MARRIAGE
4.'Explorations in Industry': Careers, Romance, and the Future of the Colonial Australian Girl; Ken Gelder and Rachael Weaver
5.Deflecting the Marriage Plot: The British and Indigenous Girl in 'Robina Crusoe and Her Lonely Island Home' (1882-1883); Terri Doughty
6.Coming of Age in Colonial India: The Discourse and Debate over the Age of Consummation in the Nineteenth Century; Subhasri Ghosh
PART III: RACE AND CLASS
7. 'My blarsted greenstone throne!': Maori Princesses and Nationhood in New Zealand Fiction for Girls; Clare Bradford
8. Black Princesses or Domestic Servants: The Portrayal of Indigenous Australian Girlhood in Colonial Children's Literature; Juliet O'Conor
9. The Jam and Matchsticks Problem: Working-Class Girlhood in Late Nineteenth-Century Cape Town; Sarah Duff
PART IV: FICTIONS OF COLONIAL GIRLHOOD
10. The Colonial Girl's Own Papers: Girl Authors, Editors, and Australian Girlhood in Ethel Turner's Three Little Maids; Tamara S. Wagner
11. 'I am glad I am Irish through and through and through': Irish Girlhood and Identity in L.T. Meade's Light O' the Morning; or, The Story of an Irish Girl (1899); Beth Rodgers
12. Making Space for the Irish Girl: Rosa Mulholland and Irish Girls in Fiction at the Turn of the Century; Susan Cahill
13. Education and Work in Service of the Nation: Canadian and Australian Girls' Fiction, 1908-1921; Kristine Moruzi and Michelle J. Smith
PART V: MATERIAL CULTURE
14. Picturing Girlhood and Empire: The Guide Movement and Photography; Kristine Alexander
15. Material Girls: Daughters, Dress, and Distance in the Trans-Imperial Family; Laura Ishiguro
16.An Unexpected History Lesson: Meeting European 'Colonial Girls' through Knitting, Weaving, Spinning, and Cups of Tea; Fiona P. McDonald
Bibliography
Index