Woolf's Night and Day and the Free-Union Novel
(2023) In Twentieth-Century Literature 69(4). p.437-464- Abstract
- This article places Woolf’s Night and Day (1919) in the context of the Edwardian free-union novel—works that represent and debate monogamous relationships without legal recognition. In seeking alternatives to marriage, this genre explored what modernity might mean for young, middle-class women. Typically, the narratives’ protagonists ultimately abandon the idea of the free union, the novels often ending after all with a conventional engagement. Night and Day follows this pattern, but only to a point. It examines the free union as an opportunity for a more liberated life for young women and still ends with an engagement, but it also remains committed to seeking a compromise between old and new—reimagining marriage on more equal terms. In... (More)
- This article places Woolf’s Night and Day (1919) in the context of the Edwardian free-union novel—works that represent and debate monogamous relationships without legal recognition. In seeking alternatives to marriage, this genre explored what modernity might mean for young, middle-class women. Typically, the narratives’ protagonists ultimately abandon the idea of the free union, the novels often ending after all with a conventional engagement. Night and Day follows this pattern, but only to a point. It examines the free union as an opportunity for a more liberated life for young women and still ends with an engagement, but it also remains committed to seeking a compromise between old and new—reimagining marriage on more equal terms. In this, Night and Day can be seen as a transitional novel, in relation both to Woolf’s own writing and to the shift from Edwardian fiction toward modernism. (Less)
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- author
- Lindskog, Annika LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2023
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- edwardian, marriage plot, modernist, virginia woolf
- in
- Twentieth-Century Literature
- volume
- 69
- issue
- 4
- pages
- 27 pages
- publisher
- Duke University Press
- ISSN
- 0041-462X
- DOI
- 10.1215/0041462X-10986836
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 0993ecb6-5898-4251-8ec2-e64ad5748e03
- date added to LUP
- 2024-02-01 13:58:26
- date last changed
- 2024-02-02 10:05:46
@article{0993ecb6-5898-4251-8ec2-e64ad5748e03,
abstract = {{This article places Woolf’s Night and Day (1919) in the context of the Edwardian free-union novel—works that represent and debate monogamous relationships without legal recognition. In seeking alternatives to marriage, this genre explored what modernity might mean for young, middle-class women. Typically, the narratives’ protagonists ultimately abandon the idea of the free union, the novels often ending after all with a conventional engagement. Night and Day follows this pattern, but only to a point. It examines the free union as an opportunity for a more liberated life for young women and still ends with an engagement, but it also remains committed to seeking a compromise between old and new—reimagining marriage on more equal terms. In this, Night and Day can be seen as a transitional novel, in relation both to Woolf’s own writing and to the shift from Edwardian fiction toward modernism.}},
author = {{Lindskog, Annika}},
issn = {{0041-462X}},
keywords = {{edwardian; marriage plot; modernist; virginia woolf}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{4}},
pages = {{437--464}},
publisher = {{Duke University Press}},
series = {{Twentieth-Century Literature}},
title = {{Woolf's Night and Day and the Free-Union Novel}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/0041462X-10986836}},
doi = {{10.1215/0041462X-10986836}},
volume = {{69}},
year = {{2023}},
}