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THE GIRL DETECTIVE IN BRITISH CULTURE AND SOCIETY: CITIZENSHIP, GENDER, AND GIRLHOOD, c. 1908-c. 1960

Stickland, Courtney Anne

[Thesis]. Manchester, UK: The University of Manchester; 2020.

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Abstract

From the mid-nineteenth century, Britain experienced a 'detective craze'™ in popular culture. The girl detective emerged comparatively late in the first decade of the twentieth century. Despite the prominence and permeation of the girl detective in British experiences of girlhood, the cultural and social meanings of this character have not been significantly explored by historians of detective fiction and childhood. In particular, the proliferation of the girl detective ---“ a profession symbolising the status quo and the rule of law --- as women's opportunities within the nation were expanding has not been considered in histories of gender, youth, and citizenship. This dissertation analyses the girl detective as both a cultural product and embodied role for girls at different historical moments in the first half of the twentieth century. It examines representations of the girl detective in Girl Guide training, girls'™ story papers, Warner Bros.' Nancy Drew film series, and Enid Blyton's child detective novels and fan magazine. This thesis argues that the girl detective communicated a model of idealised girlhood and female citizenship consistent with the conservative modernity characteristic of British society in the early-twentieth century. In particular, the girl detective emphasised girlsâ€Â™ detective work as moralistic and pertaining to the identification of need, engaging with contemporary understandings of middle-class public womanhood and philanthropy while also providing girls with the opportunity to traverse boundaries of age, gender, and class imaginatively and in real life. This study contributes to existing debates on the nature of mass culture, girlhood, and citizenship in Britain, examining the dissemination of models of conservative modernity in girl culture and the extent to which youthful female citizenship reinforced traditional ideas of femininity, with particular focus on affect and emotion.

Bibliographic metadata

Type of resource:
Content type:
Administered thesis
Form of thesis:
Traditional
Type of submission:
Doctoral level ETD - final
Thesis title:
THE GIRL DETECTIVE IN BRITISH CULTURE AND SOCIETY: CITIZENSHIP, GENDER, AND GIRLHOOD, c. 1908-c. 1960
Degree type:
Doctor of Philosophy
Degree programme:
PhD History
Publication date:
2020-08-17T12:48:10
Institution:
The University of Manchester
Location:
Manchester, UK
Total pages:
337
Abstract:
From the mid-nineteenth century, Britain experienced a 'detective craze'™ in popular culture. The girl detective emerged comparatively late in the first decade of the twentieth century. Despite the prominence and permeation of the girl detective in British experiences of girlhood, the cultural and social meanings of this character have not been significantly explored by historians of detective fiction and childhood. In particular, the proliferation of the girl detective ---“ a profession symbolising the status quo and the rule of law --- as women's opportunities within the nation were expanding has not been considered in histories of gender, youth, and citizenship. This dissertation analyses the girl detective as both a cultural product and embodied role for girls at different historical moments in the first half of the twentieth century. It examines representations of the girl detective in Girl Guide training, girls'™ story papers, Warner Bros.' Nancy Drew film series, and Enid Blyton's child detective novels and fan magazine. This thesis argues that the girl detective communicated a model of idealised girlhood and female citizenship consistent with the conservative modernity characteristic of British society in the early-twentieth century. In particular, the girl detective emphasised girlsâ€Â™ detective work as moralistic and pertaining to the identification of need, engaging with contemporary understandings of middle-class public womanhood and philanthropy while also providing girls with the opportunity to traverse boundaries of age, gender, and class imaginatively and in real life. This study contributes to existing debates on the nature of mass culture, girlhood, and citizenship in Britain, examining the dissemination of models of conservative modernity in girl culture and the extent to which youthful female citizenship reinforced traditional ideas of femininity, with particular focus on affect and emotion.
Keyword(s):
Thesis main supervisor(s):
Thesis co-supervisor(s):
Degree grantor:
Language:
en

Institutional metadata

University researcher(s):
Academic department(s):

Record metadata

Manchester eScholar ID:
uk-ac-man-scw:325667
Created by:
Stickland, Courtney
Created:
17th August, 2020, 11:48:10
Last modified by:
Stickland, Courtney
Last modified:
13th October, 2021, 09:09:33

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