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'Queens of the
Marketplace’: nineteenth-century women writers and the rise of the
bestseller'
Guest editors: Clare Clarke & Clare Gill
Women writers occupied a highly significant space in the
genealogy of nineteenth-century popular literature, not only because of the
extraordinary sales their books achieved, but also in terms of women writers’
role in redefining the parameters of authorship at this time. Some of the
bestselling works of the nineteenth century were authored by women: from the
sensation novels of Mary Elizabeth Braddon in the 1860s to Marie Corelli’s
romances in the 1890s, women writers carved out a lucrative share of the marketplace
in the second half of the century. Bestselling works by women cut across
literary genres (children’s literature, sensation fiction, detective stories,
gothic literature, the romance, religious literature, New Woman fiction, cook
books, and journalism), and in terms of audience, bestsellers also cut across
social lines too.
The journal Women’s
Writing invites papers for a special issue dedicated to the
exploration of the diverse role of women writers in the rise of the
bestseller in the nineteenth century. How did women writers contribute to the
reshaping of authorial practice in the nineteenth century? In what ways did
women writers address concerns or anxieties about professional authorship
within their work? How was popular fiction by women writers shaped by the
contemporary critical response to female bestselling authors? In what ways
did female authors contribute to traditionally ‘masculine’ genres – such as the
adventure and detective story? How and why did bestsellers by female
authors appeal to readers across gender and class lines? In addition to
reflecting the complexity and diversity of women writers’ contribution to the
bestseller phenomenon in the nineteenth century, this special issue will also
endeavour to answer some broader conceptual questions about the study of
popular works of fiction and non-fiction. Why do some bestsellers have
ephemeral popularity while others enjoy enduring appeal? What can we learn
about culture more broadly from the study of bestsellers? How does the
separation of popularity and value come about?
We welcome contributions on any nineteenth-century female
authors of bestselling popular fiction and non-fiction, particularly overlooked
and critically-neglected writers. Possible authors include:
- Mrs Henry Wood
- Mary Elizabeth Braddon
- Mrs Humphry Ward
- Florence Marryat
- Charlotte Yonge
- Rhoda Broughton
- Ouida
- Marie Corelli
- Mrs Beeton
- Eliza Lynn Linton
Please submit articles for consideration between 4,000-7000
words to Clare Gill, University of Southampton (c.gill@soton.ac.uk) or Clare Clarke, Trinity College Dublin
(clarkc11@tcd.ie) by Monday 2 September 2013.
Contributors should follow the journal’s house style details
of which are to be found on the Women’s
Writing web site http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/0999082.asp. This is
the new MLA. Do note that instead
of footnotes, we use endnotes with NO bibliography. All bibliographical
information is included in the endnotes. For example, we require place of
publication, publisher and date of publication in brackets after a book is
cited for the first time.
