Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1998 Representations of Class, Gender, Race, and Religion in the Novels of Somerville and Ross, 1894-1925. Nicole Pepinster Greene Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Greene, Nicole Pepinster, "Representations of Class, Gender, Race, and Religion in the Novels of Somerville and Ross, 1894-1925." (1998). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 6674. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/6674 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 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REPRESENTATIONS OF CLASS, GENDER, RACE, AND RELIGION IN THE NOVELS OF SŒ4ERVILLE AND ROSS, 1894-1925 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of English by Nicole Pepinster Greene B.A. (Hons) University College Dublin, Ireland, 1969 M.A. George Washington University, 1977 May 1998 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 9836874 UMI Microform 9836874 Copyright 1998, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. DEDICATION In loving memory of my mother Germaine Pauline Virginie Pepinster and my grandmother Henriette Barbe Michotte. 11 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My first thanks to my dissertation director Professor Patrick McGee, who from the beginning supported my interest in Somerville and Ross. Professor McGee's meticulous readings have fostered my progress as a researcher and writer, allowing me to develop my interpretations independently while always encouraging self-criticism. I value highly the time he spent on my work. I am also grateful to the members of my committee. Professor Carl Freedman, Michelle Masse, and Malcolm Richardson for their insights and to the Dean's representative. Professor Mixon. I also wish to thank my friends and colleagues in the Department of English at the University of Southwestern Louisiana for their interest and support, in particular Professor Carolyn Bruder for consideration in scheduling my classes and Professor Joan Fields who preceded me in her doctoral studies at L. S. U. Lastly, this work would not have been possible with the encouragement of both my daughter Lissadell, whose spirited independence enabled me to undertake this study, and my husband John, who first suggested I "take a look" at The Real Charlotte. Ill Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. t a b l e o f c o n t e n t s DEDICATION..................................................ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS........................................... iii ABSTRACT ................................................... v CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION....................................... 1 2 RESISTING THE PATRIARCHY......................... 48 3 LIVING ON THE BORDERLANDS: THE SEARCH FOR A NATIONAL IDENTITY ......................... 124 4 SUBVERTING RACE, "BLOOD," AND FAMILY ............. 214 5 CONCLUSION......................................274 WORKS CITED............................................... 288 VITA ..................................................... 295 IV Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT This dissertation examines how the Anglo-Irish writers, Edith Somerville and Martin Ross (neé Violet Martin), attempt to define themselves and others in terms of class, gender, race, and religion at a time when self-definition itself is an act of resistance and defiance. This analysis focuses on four novels: The Real Charlotte (1894), co-authored by Somerville and Ross, Mount Music (1919), An Enthusiast (1921), and The Big House of Inver (1925), written by Somerville alone. Since these novels were composed during the most chaotic years of Irish history when the country was in transition from the status of a colonial dependency of the British Empire to that of an independent bourgeois state, this study examines these novels in the context of those far-reaching historical events. This dissertation demonstrates the changes and developments in class, gender, and race as they are constructed in the context of a changing national identity. While admitting Somerville and Ross's "class consciousness" (indeed, their novels are a brilliant and accurate account of the class structure in small town, rural Ireland) and their construction of the peasant and middle classes as other, this study argues that such a construction does not always equate difference with inferiority, not does it assume that these representations are V Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. uniform or static in these four novels. In fact, the writers' representation of these constructs and the manner in which they intersect with each other will vary from one character to another and from one novel to another, according to the historical situation. Furthermore, these changes in social identities, social relationships, and balance of power, which frequently depend upon a relationship to the land, may not be explained by the change from collaborative to single authorship alone but rather to the volatile political conditions of the time. Finally, this study proposes that these novels can also be read as acts of resistance to the rapidly changing dominant ideologies of the time. VI Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INTRODUCTION Edith Œ. Somerville (1858-1949) and Martin Ross'- (1862- 1915) were two Anglo-Irish- women of Protestant, landed- gentry families who wrote ten novels and numerous short stories, travel books, and magazine articles between 1884 and 1948. They wrote all their major works collaboratively. After Martin Ross's death in 1915, Somerville continued to publish under their joint authorship, so that novels written by Somerville alone after 1915 are still always referred to as the writings of Somerville and Ross. Although they were prolific writers, Somerville and Ross's reputation rests almost entirely on five texts: The Real Charlotte (1894), a novel that has consistently been regarded as their best work and that has been described as their masterpiece and the finest nineteenth-century Irish novel;' three books of short stories: Some Experiences of an Irish R. M. (1898), Further Experiences of an Irish R. M. (1908), and In Mr. Knox's Country (1915), famous for their humor and comedy of manners, often edited collectively and discussed as one text;’ and, finally. The Big House of Inver (1925), written by Somerville alone after the death of Martin Ross, the last work to receive any critical attention, most frequently in discus­ sions of the Irish fictional genre known as "The Big House" novel. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Somerville and Ross have long been evaluated and situated in the canon as two writers who uphold the Anglo- Irish world-view of late nineteenth-century