(An)other gender: A cross-cultural analysis of war-torn France and Great Britain in which Simone de Beauvoir and Virginia Woolf redefine 'woman'

This dissertation is a cross-cultural analysis of France and Great Britain during both the First World War and World War II in which Simone de Beauvoir and Virginia Woolf redefined "woman." Utilizing New Historicism, the first chapter begins with a focus on the evolution of the two cultures from the mid-nineteenth to early twentieth century France and Great Britain and discusses the ways in which the women's movement was both perpetuated and hindered by the volatile political and cultural climates of these two countries. The second chapter discusses the traditional woman as she was viewed in both French and British culture as depicted in the works of Simone de Beauvoir and Virginia Woolf Specifically, the images of the mother, wife, hostess, and socialite are viewed in order to develop the definition of what a traditional woman was during the first half of the Twentieth Century in Great Britain and France. The third chapter lays the theoretical and philosophical ground work for the argument of An(Other) gender. Existentialism and phenomenology allow for a philosophical validation of this idea. Chapter four utilizes examples from Woolf's fictional works, such as Mrs. Dalloway, and Beauvoir's The Second Sex in order to analyze the definition of the traditional woman. This chapter is not comparing genres but rather re-visiting Woolf's works through the lens of Beauvoir's The Second Sex as she clearly describes the traditional role of women as dictated by patriarchal domination. Chapter five seeks to explore Woolf and Beauvoir's attempts at (re)defining (an)other gender. Louis Althusser's Ideological State Apparatus (ISA) is used to contemplate the place of "woman" at the time of Woolf and Beauvoir both in the home and as an emerging figure in society.