The Rhetoric of Women’s Humour in Barbara Pym’s Fiction

Download or read book The Rhetoric of Women’s Humour in Barbara Pym’s Fiction written by Naghmeh Varghaiyan and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2021-04-20 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.