The Literary Labours of Working‐Class Women in Victorian Britain
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OF FACTORY GIRLS AND SERVING MAIDS: THE LITERARY LABOURS OF WORKING‐CLASS WOMEN IN VICTORIAN BRITAIN by Meagan B. Timney SubmitteD in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Dalhousie University Halifax, Nova Scotia November 2009 © Copyright by Meagan B. Timney, 2009 ii DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY DATE: November 23, 2009 AUTHOR: Meagan B. Timney TITLE: OF FACTORY GIRLS AND SERVING MAIDS: THE LITERARY LABOURS OF WORKING‐CLASS WOMEN IN VICTORIAN BRITAIN DEPARTMENT OR SCHOOL: Department of English DEGREE: PhD CONVOCATION: May YEAR: 2010 Permission is herewith granteD to Dalhousie University to circulate anD to have copieD for non‐commercial purposes, at its Discretion, the above title upon the request of inDiviDuals or institutions. ______________________________ Signature of Author The author reserves other publication rights, anD neither the thesis nor extensive extracts from it may be printeD or otherwise reproDuceD without the author’s written permission. The author attests that permission has been obtaineD for the use of any copyrighteD material appearing in this thesis (other than brief excerpts requiring only proper acknowleDgement in scholarly writing), anD that all such use is clearly acknowleDgeD. iii For DaD iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract viii Acknowledgements ix Chapter One. Introduction. 1 “Weaving a Hopeful Song”: The Politics of Working‐Class Women’s Poetry 1 Framing Working‐Class Women Poets 2 The Literary Labours of Working‐Class Women 6 “Literary Labour Politics” 9 “Directing Progress”: The Political Poetics of Working‐Class Women Poets 13 Organization of this Project 18 Chapter Two. The Threads of Poetic (Re)form: Literature, Theory, and History. 21 Uncovering the Politics Working‐Class Women Poets 31 Theoretical Approaches 36 Definitions of “Working Class”: Decisions for Inclusion 42 A New Formalist Approach 44 Marxist‐Feminist Critiques 47 Working‐Class Women Poets: Gender and Work 51 “Separate Spheres” Revisited 63 SECTION I: WORKING‐CLASS WOMEN POETS AND CHARTISM: 1830‐1850 66 Chapter Three. WorkingClass Women Poets in the Radical Periodical Press. 67 Critical Contexts: Poetry and the Periodical Press, 1830‐1850 70 Working‐Class Women’s Poetry in the Periodical Press 73 Working‐Class Women’s Communities: The “Bondswomen” and “Pioneera” in The Pioneer 76 E.H. and F. Saunderson: The Fabric of Chartism in Working‐Class Women’s Poetry 90 Eliza Cook: Chartism’s Workers 108 “Marie”’s “Trees of Liberty” 115 v Chapter Four. Mary Hutton and the Development of a WorkingClass Women’s Political Poetics. 122 Hutton’s Literary Patronage 124 Hutton and Class Politics 129 Hutton and her Contemporaries 131 Political Poetics: Hutton’s Poor Law Poems 132 The Working‐Class Woman Poet‐Prophet 139 Rhetorical Contexts: Slavery 142 Rhetorical Contexts: Child Labour 149 Hutton’s Nationalism and Internationalism 154 Political Poetics and Gender: “The Fate of Eva” 158 SECTION 2: FACTORY GIRLS & THE CITY: 1850‐1880 164 Chapter Five. Factory Girls and the Politics of Sympathy. 165 Theories of Sympathy 168 “Social Problem” Fiction and the Politics of Sympathy 170 Middle‐ and Upper‐Class Poets and the Paradigm of Sympathy 181 Factory Girls and the Politics of Sympathy 191 The Cotton Famine and the Lancashire Operatives 201 Chapter Six. Fanny Forrester “In the City”: Irish Identity, Class Communities, and the Threat of the Urban Landscape. 211 Working‐Class Poetic Communities 214 Music, Religion, and the City 224 “Strangers in the City”: Irish Immigrants and the Urban Experience 232 “The Lowly Bard” 245 Conclusion 250 Chapter Seven. “I Cannot Speak Like Scientific Men”: The Forms of Ellen Johnston’s Poetic Subjectivities. 253 Plurality, Politics, Personae, and Poetry 255 Johnston, Politics, and Gender 256 vi Autobiographical Identities 260 Poetic Identities: Authorial Anxiety and the Woman Writer 269 Literary Labours: “An Address to Nature on its Cruelty” 271 Literary Labours: “An Address to Napier’s Dockyard” 278 “The Linnet in the Linn” 284 Chapter Eight. Conclusion. 286 The Future of Victorian Working‐Class Women’s Literary Labours 286 Appendix A: Selected List of Research Materials 293 Appendix B: Selected Poems 304 Bibliography 358 vii ABSTRACT My dissertation examines the political and formal aspects of poetry written by working‐class women in England and Scotland between 1830 and 1880. I analyse a poetic corpus that I have gathered from existing publications and new archival sources to assess what I call the “literary labour politics” of women whose poetry encounters, represents, and reacts to socio‐historic change. The poetry of working‐ class women sheds light on the multidimensional intersections between poetry about labour and poetry as labour. I show that British working‐class women writers were essential in the development of a working‐class poetic aesthetic and political agenda by examining how their poetry engaged with European politics, slavery, gender inequality, child labour, education, industrialism, and poverty. The first section surveys the political and formal nature of the poetry written by working‐class women immediately before and during the Chartist era to argue that gender complicates the political rubric of the working class during a period of intense social upheaval. I discuss the poetry of women who were published in James Morrison’s The Pioneer, as well as E.H., F. Saunderson, Eliza Cook, “Marie,” and Mary Hutton. I read their poems against those written both by eighteenth‐ century working‐class women writers and male Chartists to illuminate the intervention of nineteenth‐century women in these literary and cultural contexts. The second section interrogates the politics of working‐class women’s poetry published after the dissolution of the Chartists in 1848 through a discussion of two pseudonymous “factory girl” poets, Fanny Forrester, and Ellen Johnston. I argue that even as working‐class women’s poetry increasingly engaged with broad social issues, it also reflected the continuing importance of poetry itself as a means of individual empowerment and worked against the prose tradition to argue for the unique possibilities of poetic expression. The thematic and formal complexity of the poetry of these working‐class women allows us to assess the various poetic strategies they developed to respond to the urgent and vexed issues of social reform and personal and national relationships, as they articulated poetic and personal identities as women labouring poets against a society not attuned to their voices. viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A project of this magnituDe requires the aiD of numerous inDiviDuals. First, I woulD like to thank my supervisor, Marjorie Stone, anD my reaDers, Julia Wright anD JuDith Thompson, for pushing me beyonD what I believeD possible. Thank you to Dean Irvine for his continual support, encouragement, anD aDvice, anD for truly believing in me. I woulD also like to thank Trevor Ross for taking the time to sit on my examining committee, anD for bringing fascinating questions to the table. I owe a Debt of gratituDe to my external examiner, Florence Boos, whose work was the inspiration for this project. I also coulD not have completeD this Dissertation without the help of Michael SanDers, who was always willing to listen anD give aDvice, anD who graciously shareD with me his research on anD passion for working‐class literature. I also wish to thank Ruth Frow anD the archivists at the Working‐Class Movement Library in Manchester for helping me unearth much of the material that appears in this Dissertation. Thank you also to Noel at the British Library, anD Celia at the Manchester Central Library, who were always willing to help me with my research anD photocopying neeDs. I woulD also like to thank Joanne, Katherine, Leah, AmanDa, anD Heather for the Daily worDs of encouragement, anD for unDerstanDing the Drive anD DeDication requireD to finish a Doctoral Dissertation. Thank you to Pamela anD Rob for sticking by me through the gooD anD the baD, anD for putting up with me During the stressful times. AnD last, but certainly not least, thank you to my DaD for the worDs of aDvice, the constant reassurance, anD for being there for me always. ix CHAPTER ONE. INTRODUCTION. […] the creative genius which makes the poet, seems as likely to come from the fielD or factory as from the aboDes of learning. That power which belongs to true poetry—the power of evoking sympathies, calling up passions anD emotions, anD with a few bright, glowing worDs making the heart throb anD the brain teem with the creations of thought anD the phantoms of memory—mere cultivation anD learning Does not seem able to confer. In respect to that, the taught anD the untaught are about equal. It is an inDiviDual power. In short, we mean to say, that poets are born, anD not maDe. “Passable Poetry.” Eliza Cook’s Journal 224 (13 August 1853): 248. I may not sway the multituDe With witchery, wilD anD strong; But here, amiDst my solituDe, I weave a hopeful song. I am content with these my powers, With these my lowly DeeDs, Rememb’ring, He who formeD the flowers Hath also maDe the weeDs! ‐ “Marie,” “My Mission” (1850) “Weaving a Hopeful Song”: The Politics of Working‐Class Women’s Poetry During the fall of 2007, I journeyeD to Manchester, EnglanD, with a single purpose: to Discover (anD recover) the poetry of working‐class women in Victorian Britain. More often than not, however, I was met with scepticism from archivists, librarians, anD historians as to whether such poetry even existeD. The following stuDy is the proDuct of the rewarDing, anD sometimes surprising, Discoveries I maDe During my three months in the archives of Cottonopolis, as Manchester was often known in the miD‐ 1800s.1 Not only DiD I finD a substantial amount of poetry written by working‐class women, but I also iDentifieD a large number of poems written about the inDustrial revolution.2 As a result, I have to chosen to examine how working‐class women poets between 1830 anD 1880 actively responD to the changes brought about by 1 In the miD‐1800s, Manchester was known to many as “Cotton City” or “Cottonopolis.” The Oxford English Dictionary shows that the term was first useD in 1851.