Unfinished Sympathy: Women, Class Consciousness and Modernism Öffentlichkeit

Abstract

Overt declarations of class empathy are rarely expressed by leisure-class women in Modernist literature, but these women equally show a tendency towards empathy in their character. I examine this dichotomy in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, Katherine Mansfield’s “The Garden Party,” and D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover, outlining how factors like stigmatization of interaction, successful dehumanization of the working class, affluence-related guilt, and feelings of helplessness contribute to the disconnect between classes. I also explain how this disconnect is rooted in these women’s specific intersection of class and gender, which discourages sociopolitical engagement and positions them in an advantaged class status but a disadvantaged gender status. Upbringing and the formation of identity are essential in instilling class and gender norms within individuals, and they are essential in my analysis of social role. I examine these three texts to argue that the social role of leisure-class women stifles the inclination they have towards empathizing with the working class. 

Table of Contents

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………..1

Chapter 1: Invisible, Unseen, Unknown…………………………………...……………………...8

Chapter 2: Like a Work-Girl……………………………………………………………………..24

Chapter 3: Which is My England?.................................................................................................40

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………….58

Works Cited……………………………………………………………………………………...61

Appendix…………………………………………………………………………..…………….65 

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	English
Degree	B.A.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Literature, English Literature, Modern
Stichwort	Class Lawrence Woolf Mansfield Modernism Modernity Gender
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Erwin Rosinberg, Emory University
Committee Members	Linda Merrill, Emory University Barbara Ladd, Emory University

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