The Monster and the New Woman: Expanding the Debate about Gender and the New Woman at the British Fin de Siècl

My dissertation considers the way that the figure of the monster contributes to the debate about the New Woman and gender at the British fin de siecle. The figure of the monster contributes three conclusions to this discussion. 1) The figure of the monster reveals that there was a conflict in culture in Britain at the fin de siecle between British subjects who held traditional values (Conservatives) and those who exhibited progressive viewpoints (New Liberals, radicals, and socialists). 2) The figure of the monster collapses social categories and boundaries that traditionalists held dear, like race and colonialism (native-ness versus foreignness), gender and the New Woman, homo/sexuality, and discourses on poverty. 3) The figure of the monster shows that the New Woman and gender are also indeterminate and liminal subjects. Friendships between women can be queer. The British populous viewed the New Woman as either a monstrous figure (a threat to family, nation, and Empire) or a laudable figure (a role model for New Women and women to emulate). The foreign and perverse violence of the monster shows that conflict was embedded in colonialism, the New Woman, sexuality, and poverty at century's end. Finally, the figure of the monster demands that New Women who were racially and ethnically "Other," or different from the white English norm, should be incorporated into British society not banished to its limits.