2007 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Political Representations of the Self and Other in the Nineteenth-Century British Women's Writing
| Project/Area Number |
16520215
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Literatures/Literary theories in other countries and areas
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| Research Institution | Kushiro Public University of Economics |
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Principal Investigator |
ICHIKAWA Chieko Kushiro Public University of Economics, Department of Economics, Associate Professor (10372822)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2004 – 2007
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| Keywords | Nineteenth-century Britain / India / Feminist Campaign / Florence Nightingale / Mary Carpenter / Josephine Butler / Feminist Magazines / Philanthropy |
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| Research Abstract |
This research project aims to explore the political representations of the self and other in the nineteenth-century British women's writing by examining their literal intervention in social reforms in England and India.
Chapter One examines Florence Nightingale's writings about the sanitary and cultural reforms in England and India, placing her as the 'moral guardian' of the British Empire. Nightingale contributed to the construction of a 'healthy' national character in England by calling the need for women's moral power. She also proposed a 'moral and healthier' colonial rule through the introduction of public health and the reform of the landholding system in India. However, her writings indicated not only her resistance against the patriarchal authority inherent in the British Empire but also her alliance with the consolidation of the British colonial rule.
Mary Carpenter also contributed to the cultivation of 'Englishness' in cultural others : lower social orders in England and India
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n girls. Chapter Two examines Carpenter's reform of education in England and India, which demonstrates her pursuit of the `woman's mission' as a guardian of the national character and the reformation of the moral worth of imperial rule. Her work on India displays the complexity of feminist political intervention and nationalistic narratives aligned with the nineteenth-century imperial axiom. Carpenter fashioned herself as a 'mother' of cultural others who were discarded by the patriarchal authority of the British Empire, pursuing her desire for the initiative in implementing the moral reform of the British colonial rule.
Chapter Three discusses the crusade of Josephine Butler within the framework of gender, class and the Empire. She organised female networks to rescue 'fallen' sisters and more effectively involved working-class male supporters. Through such measures, she intended to bring about a moral reform in the promiscuous aspects of all classes from the lower social order. Butler's scheme to rescue 'enslaved' Indian sisters evinces her rage and protest against the masculinity of imperial rule and its sexual double standards. Moreover, it signifies her desire to subvert the patriarchal authority in order to enable women to repossess their own bodies. Less
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