In this study of three of Barbara Pym's novels, Naghmeh Varghaiyan, drawing on examinations of women's humour by Eileen Gillooly, Regina Barreca, and others, shows how the humorous female discourse in Some Tame Gazelle, Excellent Women, and Jane and Prudence undermines patriarchal culture and subverts both female and male stereotypes such as that of the spinster and of the Byronic hero. Varghaiyan reveals how the rhetoric of women's humour enables Pym's female characters to survive in the patriarchal culture and to unsettle it.
eBook - ePub
About this book
Trusted by 375,005 students
Access to over 1.5 million titles for a fair monthly price.
Study more efficiently using our study tools.
Table of contents
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Preface by Orna Raz
- 1 Characteristics of Women’s Humour
- 2 Some Tame Gazelle: Construction of Women’s Veiled Humour
- 3 Excellent Women: Humour of Mildred Regarded as an Excellent Woman
- 4 Jane and Prudence: Unconventional Wife and Satisfied Spinster
- Conclusion
- Works Cited