‘My daughter,my dear’: the correspondence of Catherine de Médicis and Elisabeth de Valois

This article explores the evolving relationship between Catherine de Médicis and her daughter, Elisabeth de Valois, as the latter became Queen of Spain. The particular dynamics of their changing political roles juxtaposed with their relative status within the Valois familial hierarchy can be analysed through the extant correspondence that became their main conduit for communication after Elisabeth's marriage and removal to Spain. This correspondence highlights epistolary strategies of emotional rhetoric, silence, and even delay, as well as meaning conveyed through the use of scribes and the physical placement of messages upon paper. These letters between a mother and daughter further reveal complex patterns of involvement of a wider group of individuals at court within the epistolary network, which meant all communication was subject to supervision, interference and mediation.     

‘The dumpling in my soup was lonely just like me’: food in the memories of Mennonite women refugees

This article analyzes food memories as expressed in the oral and written memory sources of Mennonite women refugees who migrated from the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1940s to Canada and (less so) South America. The specific case study is informed by theoretical models brought to the study of memory by historian Luisa Passerini. In particular, her work on the psychological and emotional meaning inherent in memory is evident here, as Mennonite women associate food with past experience both traumatic and life saving. As such, Passerini's notion of memory's double character fits the pattern of food memory that aligns with polar times of deprivation and abundance.     

‘So that my soul may have time to grow’: Joy and Happiness in Elizabeth von Arnim’s The Solitary Summer

Abstract

This article discusses the Romantic and Transcendentalist roots of Elizabeth von Arnim’s joyful retreat from the world in The Solitary Summer (1899). By exploring how von Arnim incorporates themes and ideas from William Wordsworth and Henry David Thoreau, it situates von Arnim’s concepts of joy and happiness in the Aristotelian tradition of eudaemonia and shows how the practice of mindfulness turns Elizabeth’s garden into an ongoing project of self-cultivation.     

‘Bless the Gods for my pencils and paper’: Katie Gliddon's prison diary,Percy Bysshe Shelley and the suffragettes at Holloway

This article discusses the life and imprisonment of the largely unknown middle-class artist and British suffrage activist Katie Gliddon and analyzes her extensive prison diary, secretly written and drawn in her copy of The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley at London's Holloway Prison in March and April 1912. By creating a platform for the voices of ‘ordinary’ prisoners and by opening up a space for a transgressive gaze between suffragettes, ‘ordinary’ prisoners and female officers, Gliddon's writings allow us to complicate our understanding of cross-class relations within the women's suffrage campaign and in women's prisons more generally speaking.     

‘I get together with my friends and try to change it’. Young feminist students resist ‘laddism’, ‘rape culture’ and ‘everyday sexism’

Abstract

Contemporary alarm about ‘laddism’ reveals what feminist research and activism has long-recognised; universities, like other social institutions, can be dangerous places for women. Research in the US and, more recently, the UK reveals alarming rates of violence, against women, the cultural and institutional norms which support violence and gaps in institutional responses. In the midst of this contemporary alarm about the university as a hotbed of laddism, there is a risk that the university – a site of potential empowerment and liberation for women (and men) – becomes re-positioned as a danger zone. The limited focus on danger and safety belies the potential of universities to enhance human freedoms through intellectual endeavour. We argue this progressive potential should remain centre-stage, as should university-based resistance to everyday sexism and laddism. This paper analyses accounts of young women feminists (n = 33) in UK and US universities. It explores their use of feminism and features of the university environment to resist and challenge oppressive cultures and practices. It argues that, despite encroaching neoliberalism and enduring sexism, universities continue to provide environments for engagements with feminism, enabling young women students to use feminism to resist and challenge sexism and to envision their feminist futures.     

‘If I strive not after my own salvation,who shall strive for me,and if not now,when?’ The Role of Religion in the West Central Jewish Working Girls' Club, 1893–1939

This article looks at the inclusion of religion within the West Central Jewish Working Girls' Club in London through newspapers, club histories and oral testimonies. Previous scholarship has downplayed the religious element in Jewish youth clubs; however, this article will demonstrate that religion was a factor within the activities of the West Central Club. Drawing on reports from the club leaders, this article will show that religion was present through prayers and services held on the Sabbath, and, where possible, this religion promoted domesticity for young women.