Ellen Moers (1928–1979
) was an American academic and literary scholar. She is best known for her pioneering contribution to
gynocriticism Gynocriticism or gynocritics is the term coined in the seventies by Elaine Showalter to describe a new literary project intended to construct "a female framework for the analysis of women's literature".
By expanding the historical study of women ...
, ''Literary Women'' (1976).
Feminist breakthrough
After two exact but conventional books (on the
dandy
A dandy is a man who places particular importance upon physical appearance, refined language, and leisurely hobbies, pursued with the appearance of nonchalance. A dandy could be a self-made man who strove to imitate an aristocratic lifestyle des ...
and on
Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (; August 27, 1871 – December 28, 1945) was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm mora ...
), Moers was caught up by
Second-wave feminism
Second-wave feminism was a period of feminist activity that began in the early 1960s and lasted roughly two decades. It took place throughout the Western world, and aimed to increase equality for women by building on previous feminist gains.
...
, which she credits with "pulling me out of the stacks"
[Ellen Moers](_blank)
/ref> and leading her to write ''Literary Women''. In the latter she established the existence of a strong nineteenth-century tradition of (international) women writers—her identification within it of what she called 'female Gothic' proving especially influential.
In the fast-moving world of feminist scholarship, her book would be challenged in the following decade as under-theorised and ethnocentric; but continued nonetheless to serve as a significant stepping-stone for future scholarship.
Twin traditions
Moers pointed to the ambiguous origins of the dandy, in a merger of French and English traditions; to the paradox in the dandy's highly structured pose of inaction; and to the role of the female dandy.
She indicated Dreiser's twin role on the cusp between 19th-century realism and 20th-century realism, as well as his roots in the different religious traditions of Catholicism and Protestantism.[P. Giles, ''American Catholic Arts and Fictions'' p. 151]
See also
* Beau Brummell
* Anna Louise Germaine de Stael
*Sandra Gilbert
Sandra M. Gilbert (born December 27, 1936) is an American literary critic and poet who has published in the fields of feminist literary criticism, feminist theory, and psychoanalytic criticism. She is best known for her collaborative critical wo ...
References
External links
Finding aid to Ellen Moers papers records at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moers, Ellen
1928 births
1979 deaths
American literary critics
Women literary critics
Feminist theory
Second-wave feminism
American women critics