French Literature Reviews - 2026
B. K. SCOTT, Gender and Modernism: Critical Concepts, 4 vols.
Literary Theory, Linguistics and Stylistics
Bonnie Kime SCOTT, Gender and Modernism: Critical Concepts, 4 vols.
New York, Routledge, 2008, 544 p.
EAN: 9780415380928
ABSTRACT
Modernism, whether viewed as a historical period, a manifestation of formal experimentation, or an aspect of modernity, has been shaped by gender, consciously or unconsciously, since its inception. The years 1890–1940, universally recognized as the modernist era, coincide with the first wave of feminism and its educational, suffragist, socialist, and professional agendas. Feminist activism and ideology during this period, alongside the backlash against them, turned gender into a contentious battleground often referred to as the "sex wars." Furthermore, the lingering impact of the Oscar Wilde trials and the thriving gay and lesbian subcultures—particularly within the urban centers of modernism during the 1910s and 1920s—subverted normative concepts of masculinity and femininity. In response to global consumer culture, diverse representations of the modern girl emerged, further challenging conventional gender roles. The Harlem Renaissance possessed its own distinct gender politics and forms of expression, much like modernism's engagement with and emergence from colonial contexts worldwide.
Discussions of gender within modernism gained momentum in the 1970s, coinciding with second-wave feminism and the integration of feminist theory and criticism into academia. This paradigm shift challenged the traditionally male-normative construction of the modernist canon and its associated experimental forms. Early on, various theoretical frameworks for exploring gender became available, including the gendering of style found in French feminist theory, psychoanalytic approaches, materialist feminism, and gynocritical analyses of women writers. By the 1990s, raising gender-related questions regarding modernist texts had become standard scholarly practice. Debates concerning the sufficiency of gender as the sole focal point of feminist theory subsequently gave rise to the valuable concept of intersectionality, which accounts for how social categories such as race, class, sexuality, ability/disability, and global or colonial positioning intersect with gender to shape individual standpoints. Equally significant are the critiques of binary divisions reinforced by gendered oppositions, as well as the scholarly examination of gender as a culturally produced or performed phenomenon.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Volume I: Modernists Write Gender. Issues of Formal Authority. Gender Politics. Racial Expressions and Transgressions. On the Colonial Horizon. Other Arts.
Volume II: Critical Gender Studies of Modernism: The Makings of Modernism. Reading Gender into Modernist Canons. Issues of Sexual Textuality. Modernism, Gender and War. Productive and Contested Spaces.
Volume III: Critical Gender Studies of Modernism: Diversity of Focus. Gender, Genre, and Discourse. Traversing High/Low Modernism and Other Arts. Decolonizing Modernism.
Volume IV: Critical Gender Studies of Modernism: Diversity of Identities. Masculine and Feminine Performances. Intersections of Gender and Race. Lesbian, Gay, and Queer Intersections.
BIOGRAPHY
Bonnie Kime Scott is Professor of Women's Studies at San Diego State University, where she teaches courses on women writers, feminist theory, gender, and representation. Over the past decade, her scholarship has focused on the feminist revision of literary modernism, and she is currently working on a sequel to The Gender of Modernism: A Critical Anthology, originally published in 1990.
The period broadly designated as literary modernism unfolded alongside significant social and political movements that transformed the cultural landscape of the early twentieth century. During this era, artistic experimentation frequently intersected with debates concerning suffrage, labor, and changing social roles. Academic inquiry into these dynamics expanded substantially in later decades, as researchers began to reexamine established literary canons through various critical perspectives. These developments fostered a broader understanding of how cultural productions reflect and shape ideological frameworks, particularly regarding identity and representation in modern literature.
Bonnie Kime Scott assembled a four-volume collection that gathers critical perspectives on the relationship between gender dynamics and modernist literature. Readers interested in feminist criticism, twentieth-century literature, and cultural history may find this resource relevant to their inquiries.