Sisters in Literature: Female Sexuality in Antigone, Middlemarch, Howards End, and Women in Love

234 Pages·1998·13.12 MB·English

by  Masako Hirai

Sisters in Literature
Female Sexuality in Antigone, Middlemarch,
Howards End and Women in Love
Masako Hirai
SISTERS IN LITERATURE
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Sisters in Literature
Female Sexuality in Antigone,
Middlemarch, Howards End
and Women in Love
Masako Hirai
Professor
English Department
Kobe College
Nishinomiya, Japan
flfl
m
First published in Great Britain 1998 by
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London
Companies and representatives throughout the world
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 0-333-73145-X
m
First published in the United States of America 1998 by
ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC.,
Scholarly and Reference Division,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010
ISBN 0-312-21421-9
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hirai, Masako, 1949—
Sisters in literature : female sexuality in Antigone, Middlemarch,
Howards End, and Women in Love / Masako Hirai.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0-312-21421-9 (cloth)
1. English fiction—History and criticism. 2. Sisters in
literature. 3. Lawrence, D. H. (David Herbert), 1885-1936. Women
in love. 4. Forster, E. M. (Edward Morgan), 1879-1970. Howards
End. 5. Eliot, George, 1819-1880. Middlemarch. 6. Sophocles.
Antigone. 7. Women in literature. 8. Sex in literature.
I. Title.
PR888.S52H57 1998
823.009*352045—dc21 98-9219
CIP
©Masako Hirai 1998
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made
without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with
written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by
the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 9HE.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to
criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance
with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and
sustained forest sources.
10 9 8 7 6 54 3 21
07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wiltshire
For my mother
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Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments x
1 Introduction 1
2 The Common Doom 8
The Split in the Novelists 8
Mothering the Artist 14
3 Reading Antigone 25
Antigone for George Eliot 25
Antigone and Eliot for D. H. Lawrence 28
Antigone and Eliot for E. M. Forster 31
Reading Antigone from the Sisters' Dialectic 35
4 Middlemarch: From Heroic Legend to Emotional
History 41
Beginning with Legend: History as Narrowing Path 41
Juxtaposition: Images and Counter-Images 44
Dialogue: Passion vs. Common Sense 50
Disillusionment and Sexual Images 65
Ending with a Diminished Myth: an Emotive History 74
5 Howards End: From Letters to a Connecting Vision 77
Beginning with Letters: History as a
Disconnected View 77
The Dilemma: Freedom and Discontinuity in
Social and Sexual Myths 84
Dialogue: Poetry and Prose 88
Disillusion, Madness and Sexual Vision 103
The Language of the Wound: Woman's Body,
Tree and House 111
Ending with an Image: House and Woman as Spirit 117
6 Women in Love (1): The Disruptive Style, its
Images and Arguments 121
The First Scene: Tradition and the Gap 123
Wedding and Fashion: Social Act and the Inner Gap 132
Animal Imagery 136
vn
Vlll Contents
Contrast in Colours 138
Female Mystery and the Knowledge of the Artist 142
Changing Colours and the Other Mode of Being 144
From under the Mirror: the Inhuman Light 148
Passion for Debate and Death of Language 153
7 Women in Love (2): The Language Between 169
Between Purity and Shame 169
The Game of Death 175
The Knowing Adult vs. the Innocent Child 181
Art and Life: Ambiguities about the Rock 186
The Disruptive Form 190
Inversions in the Mirror: Parting and Attachment 194
The Sacrifice to 'Love' 202
Blood-brotherhood and the Death of Tragedy 207
Notes 211
Bibliography 216
Index 220
Page references given for the texts quoted are to the following
editions:
Antigone, edited by Andrew Brown, Aris and Phillips, 1987.
Middlemarch, edited by Bert G. Hornback, Norton, 1977.
Howards End, edited by Oliver Stallybrass, Arnold, 1973.
Women in Love, edited by David Farmer, Lindeth Vasey and
John Worthen, Cambridge, 1987.