Elizabeth Bowen: Realism, modernism and gendered identity in her novels of the 1930s

Abstract

Elizabeth Bowen's novels are not often seen as ‘modernist'; however, like other novelists of the thirties, her work in this period can be seen as both heavily influenced by, and also reacting against, modernist writing, particularly in her case that of Virginia Woolf. The article focusses on To the North and The Death of the Heart, and discusses ways in which these novels use modernist and realist modes, sometimes in opposition, in order to represent the problematic nature of reality and the self for their women characters. It traces links between these novels’ representations of women, the dissatisfaction of modernist writers with the realist tradition, and the ambivalent attitude to modernism felt by many 1930s’ writers. It argues that Elizabeth Bowen's novels of the 1930s are engaged in a critique of both realist and modernist modes, and of the gendered assumptions of each tradition.