A one-day symposium entitled ‘Gender Stereotypes in the Long Nineteenth Century’ will be held at the University of Stirling in Scotland on Saturday, 30th April 2016, with the aim of exploring the intersections of gender with class and race in the construction of national and imperial ideologies, and the fluid transformation of these tropes from the Romantic to the Victorian period as well as their legacy in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
The symposium will explore the impact of Edmund Burke’s familial trope and his ideal of female domesticity on the formation of British national discourse, ideology of motherhood and mother country, the effects of female domesticity when challenged by transgressive sexualities, queer identities, and Orientalist stereotypes related to women in the construction of British imperialism.
Some speakers will focus on the destabilisation of gender boundaries both in literature and in medical fiction, where cross-dressing male nurses mingle with ‘unwomanly’ female doctors, and on the role of masculinity among surgeons and explorers in Britain and the United States.
Stereotypes of military manliness and the role of emotions in sentimental masculinity will also be examined, as well as the dynamics of gender, class, and race in relation to British national discourse’s attempts to expand and construct the British Empire.
By examining the ways in which the development and re-signification of male and female stereotypes contributed to constructions of national and imperial identities in the long nineteenth century, this symposium seeks to shed new light on issues related to race and xenophobia in contemporary Britain. A diachronic conversation that connects the past and the present will unveil similarities and differences, and will help to understand British identity as it is being renegotiated in the present. In this respect, it is significant to address the ways in which nineteenth century gender stereotypes are being challenged or transformed by contemporary cultural productions, as constructions of national identities are being refigured and reconceptualised in the light of current social and cultural changes.
This symposium is funded by the Division of Literature and Languages (University of Stirling) and BARS (British Association for Romantic Studies).
The costs for attendees will be £20. For full details, and to book a place, please see http://www.stir.ac.uk/arts-humanities/news-and-events/events-archive/2016/genderstereotypesinthelongnineteenthcentury/
For more information contact the symposium convenor:
Dr Barbara Leonardi
Literature and Languages
School of Arts and Humanities
University of Stirling
Stirling FK9 4LA
Tel: + 44 (0) 1786 467576
email: barbara.leonardi@stir.ac.uk