Elspeth Huxley: gender,empire and narratives of nation, 1935-64

Abstract

This article explores the impact of empire on narratives of the British nation during a period of decline of British colonial rule through a study of Elspeth Huxley's successive reworkings of such narratives between 1935 and 1964. It sets Huxley's work in the context of post-1945 anxieties about national decline and their connections with the loss of imperial power, and looks at the difficulties surrounding the articulation of national identity as virile and masculine in post-imperial Britain. Although anxieties about masculinities were often addressed through a misogynistic discourse which showed women emasculating men, Huxley's work suggests the significance of a counter-theme. It indicates not only her own attachment to an imperial identity but also the ways in which this continued to be articulated in the midtwentieth century as an identity with a wide appeal to a metropolitan audience, and one through which women could be incorporated into the story of nation. In exploring the terms of this incorporation, the article considers the opportunities open to women to claim to embody exemplary national qualities through the figure of the doughty, intrepid, imperial female pioneer, and the particular resonance and appeal this figure acquired in the context of the end of empire.     

Class,ethnicity and gender intertwined: Jewish women and the East London rent strikes, 1935-1940

Abstract

Feminist theorists have long debated whether gender or class position is of primary importance in shaping women's political consciousness; the consequences of ethnic or religious distinctions have not been examined as fully. This article hopes to rectify some of these oversights by focusing on the experiences of working-class, east London Jewish women involved in the pre-war rent strikes organized by the Communist-led Stepney Tenants' Defence League. It attempts to explain why so many of them became left-wing militants while their female Irish neighbors, equally marginalized, often gravitated towards the radical right. It concludes that in these close-knit communities ethnic identity proved more politically salient than did class or gender.     

(Re)creating gender hierarchies within northern landscapes: a study of stories about nature and gender

This article examines how gender hierarchies are (re)created within the context of northern landscapes. We analyse data from fieldwork and interviews with middle-class female Russians having settled in a small town in northernmost Norway, most of them as marriage migrants. Inspired by the phenomenology of the body, feminist phenomenology and gender theory, the analysis shows how the participants talk about nature as ‘recreation’ and ‘poetry’, but also as a venue that is vital for (re)shaping their gendered identities. In particular, the Russian women talk about their strong, skilful outdoors Norwegian husbands as ‘experts’ in nature, and about themselves as ‘novices’. This ‘expert–novice’ relationship creates a hierarchical distinction between the Norwegian man and the Russian woman, but also attributes additional value to the equality-oriented, but in several cases neither highly educated nor highly paid, Norwegian husband. Through this ‘re-masculinisation’ of their Norwegian partners, the Russian women create a complementary, but subordinate space for themselves. The analysis reveals that our participants situate themselves in contrast to the Norwegian equality ideal while creating a room of their own where they can form a separate and unique Russian femininity. This illustrates how constructions of gender are interwoven in translocal ‘minoritising’ and ‘majoritising’ processes.     

Book Review: Narratives on gender,generations and ethnicity

ABSTRACT. Though the study of men and masculinities has always been part of Women's Studies, recent Finnish studies on men have often developed without explicit attention to gender relations. In a Nordic context, Finnish studies on men have been relatively neglected. In this article we provide a concise review of Finnish research on men, including special reference to men's relations to home and work, men's violences, and the social exclusion of men. We present a synthetic account of the recent development of these studies and a critique of the field, and suggest some ways forward in future studies.