Córki dekadencji. Anglosaskie nowelistki fin de siècle’u
Daughters of Decadence: Anglo-Saxon Women Writers of the Fin de Siècle

Author(s): Mateusz Skucha
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: decadence; Decadent Movement; woman; avant-garde; fin de siècle; novella; short forms of prose; New Woman; feminist criticism
Summary/Abstract: This article discusses English-language female writers’ avant-garde at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, and the subject matter includes texts gathered in the collection Daughters of Decadence. Stories by Women Writers of the Finde-Siècle prepared in 1993 by Elaine Showalter, who takes into consideration short forms of prose, such as short stories, dream narratives, fantasies, utopias, dramas, allegories, and fragmented narratives. The body of the article consists of three parts. In the first part, I describe the “odd woman” and New Woman figures determined by Showalter and Sally Ledger. In the second one, I interpret chosen works of the female writers of that time (“An Egyptian Cigarette” by Kate Chopin, “Suggestion” by Ada Leverson, “The Buddhist Priest’s Wife” by Olive Schreiner, “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “A Cross Line” by George Egerton, “Miss Grief” by Vernon Lee, “Life’s Gifts” by Olive Schreiner, and “A White Night” by Charlotte Mew). In the last part, I contemplate the writers’ avant-garde, which – I think – was associated with their identity rather than with poetics of their works.

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