Wilfrid Laurier University Scholars Commons @ Laurier Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive) 2017 Narrative Pleasures and Feminist Politics: Popular Women’s Historical Fiction, 1990-2015 Victoria Kennedy
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.wlu.ca/etd Part of the Literature in English, British Isles Commons, Literature in English, North America Commons, Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Women's History Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Kennedy, Victoria, "Narrative Pleasures and Feminist Politics: Popular Women’s Historical Fiction, 1990-2015" (2017). Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive). 1916. https://scholars.wlu.ca/etd/1916 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive) by an authorized administrator of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. NARRATIVE PLEASURES AND FEMINIST POLITICS: POPULAR WOMEN’S HISTORICAL FICTION, 1990-2015 by Victoria E. M. Kennedy B.A. English (Hons.), Wilfrid Laurier University, 2011 M.A. English, York University, 2012 DISSERTATION Submitted to the Department of English and Film Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for Doctor of Philosophy Wilfrid Laurier University ©Victoria E. M. Kennedy, 2017 i Abstract This dissertation contributes to a developing body of work on women’s historical fiction and its significance to feminist discourse. Building from Diana Wallace’s 2005 study The Woman’s Historical Novel: British Women Writers, 1900-2000, I offer a modified definition of “the woman’s historical novel” and a transatlantic consideration of several of the most popular titles in the contemporary period, including The Other Boleyn Girl (2001), Outlander (1991), A Great and Terrible Beauty (2003), and Scarlett (1991).