Abstract
Rosoff and Spencer return to the themes of fiction, femininity, and friendship that underpin their transnational analysis of American and British school and college stories for girls between 1910 and 1960. They conclude that perceived essential characteristics of femininity that transcend nation (and social class) are entangled with constructed expectations that are firmly grounded in nation. Their analysis interrogates the significance of the genre as both informal education for contemporary readers and a valid historical source for historians of girlhood and informal education. Their research offers important insights into how ideas of female sociability, authority, domesticity, responsibility, and possibility are woven into a gender ideology that transcends national borders.
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Notes
- 1.
Kristine Moruzi and Michelle J. Smith, eds., Colonial Girlhood in Literature, Culture and History, 1840–1950 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), 2.
- 2.
Pierre-Yves Saunier, Transnational History (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), 116.
- 3.
Ibid., 134.
- 4.
The decision to use series books is particularly relevant here. The creation of a series demands a commitment from a reader to follow their heroines’ progress. In order to sustain reader interest throughout the sagas of school and college, plots had to engage their readership sufficiently with characteristics that they admired and with plots that interested them so that they cared enough to find out what happened next.
- 5.
Ibid., 8.
- 6.
Ann Curthoys and Marilyn Lake, quoted in Pierre-Yves Saunier, Transnational History (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), 139.
- 7.
Pierre-Yves Saunier, Transnational History, 116.
- 8.
Gary McCulloch, “The Moral Universe of Mr. Chips: Veteran Teachers in British Literature and Drama,” Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice 15, no. 4 (August 2009): 410.
- 9.
This list is cited with permission from the Fort Pitt Grammar school archives and was unearthed by Catherine Holloway, to whom many thanks are due, in the process of her research into the history of the school. The school was originally a girls’ technical school only becoming a grammar school after this pupil would have left. A technical school typically attracted girls from a working class background.
- 10.
Peter Hunt, Children’s Literature (Oxford: Blackwell, 2001), 8.
- 11.
Diana Fuss, Essentially Speaking: Feminism, Nature, Difference (New York & London: Routledge, 1989).
- 12.
Elinor Brent-Dyer, Tom Tackles the Chalet School (London: W. & R. Chambers, 1948; Radstock: Girls Gone By, 2017), 19. Citations are to the Girls Gone By edition.
- 13.
Ibid., 65.
- 14.
Dorita Fairlie Bruce, Dimsie Intervenes (London: Oxford University Press, 1937), 61.
- 15.
Clare Hollowell, “For the Honour of the School: Class in the Girls’ School Story,” Children’s Literature in Education, 45, no. 4 (December 2014): 315.
- 16.
Gill Frith, “‘The Time of Your Life’: The Meaning of the School Story,” in Language, Gender and Childhood, Carolyn Steedman, Cathy Urwin and Valerie Walkerdine, eds. (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985), 113.
- 17.
Janice Raymond, A Passion for Friends: Towards a Philosophy of Female Affection (London: The Women’s Press, 1991).
- 18.
Elinor Brent-Dyer, Jo Returns to the Chalet School (London: W. & R. Chambers, 1936), 261.
- 19.
Alice Ross Colver, Joan Foster, College Senior (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co, 1949), 195–196.
- 20.
Pauline Lester, Marjorie Dean College Freshman (New York: A.L. Burt, 1922), 112.
- 21.
Ibid., 109.
- 22.
Pauline Lester, Marjorie Dean College Sophomore (New York: A.L. Burt, 1922), 15.
- 23.
Dorita Fairlie Bruce, Dimsie Goes Back (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1927), 247. The story of Jonah’s gourd in the Old Testament book of Jonah, chapter 4, is given as an example of how something that seems to be desirable and appears very quickly may disappear equally quickly, and is therefore of little value. The reference indicates that Fairlie Bruce expected her readers to be conversant with stories from the Bible.
- 24.
Ibid., 255.
- 25.
Sheena Wilkinson, Friends in the Fourth; Girls School and College Friendships in British Fiction (London: Bettany Press, 2007), 17.
- 26.
Dorita Fairlie Bruce, Dimsie Goes Back, 275.
- 27.
See “Friends of the Chalet School,” http://www.chaletschool.org.uk/, accessed 30 September 2018; “Chalet School Fans,” https://www.facebook.com/chaletfans/, accessed 30 September 2018; “New Chalet Club,” https://www.facebook.com/chaletfans/, accessed 30 September 2018; “The Chaletian Bulletin Board,” http://the-cbb.co.uk/, accessed 30 September 2018.
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Brent-Dyer, Elinor. Jo Returns to the Chalet School. London: W. & R. Chambers, 1936.
Brent-Dyer, Elinor. Tom Tackles the Chalet School. London: W. & R. Chambers, 1948. Reprinted. Radstock: Girls Gone By, 2017. Page references are to Girls Gone By edition.
Bruce, Dorita Fairlie. Dimsie Goes Back. Oxford: Humphrey Milford, 1927.
Bruce, Dorita Fairlie. Dimsie Intervenes. London: Oxford University Press, 1937.
Colver, Alice Ross. Joan Foster, College Senior. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co, 1949.
Lester, Pauline. Marjorie Dean College Freshman. New York: A. L. Burt, 1922a.
Lester, Pauline. Marjorie Dean College Sophomore. New York: A. L. Burt, 1922b.
Secondary Sources
Frith, Gill. “‘The Time of Your Life’: The Meaning of the School Story.” In Language, Gender and Childhood, edited by Carolyn Steedman, Cathy Urwin, and Valerie Walkerdine, 133–137. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985.
Fuss, Diana. Essentially Speaking: Feminism, Nature and Difference. London: Routledge, 1989.
Hollowell, Clare. “For the Honour of the School: Class in the Girls’ School Story.” Children’s Literature in Education, 45, no. 4 (December 2014): 310–323.
Hunt, Peter. Children’s Literature. Oxford: Blackwell, 2001.
McCulloch, Gary. “The Moral Universe of Mr. Chips: Veteran Teachers in British Literature and Drama.” Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice 15, no. 4 (August 2009): 409–420.
Moruzi Kristine and Michelle J. Smith, eds. Colonial Girlhood in Literature, Culture and History, 1840–1950. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.
Raymond, Janice. A Passion for Friends: Towards a Philosophy of Female Affection. London: The Women’s Press, 1991.
Saunier, Pierre-Yves. Transnational History. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
Wilkinson, Sheena. Friends in the Fourth: Girls School and College Friendships in British Fiction. London: Bettany Press, 2007.
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Rosoff, N.G., Spencer, S. (2019). Conclusion. In: British and American School Stories, 1910–1960. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05986-6_8
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