Ellen Moers
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Ellen Moers (1928–1979)[1] was an American academic and literary scholar. She is best known for her pioneering contribution to gynocriticism, Literary Women (1976).[2] and leading her to write Literary Women. In the latter she established the existence of a strong nineteenth-century tradition of (international) women writers—her identification within it of what she called 'female Gothic' proving especially influential.[3]
Ellen Moers | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1928 |
| Died | 1979 (aged 50–51) |
| Occupation | literary critic |
| Known for | gynocriticism |
| Notable work | Literary Women (1976) |
In the fast-moving world of feminist scholarship, her book would be challenged in the following decade as under-theorised and ethnocentric; but continued nonetheless to serve as a significant stepping-stone for future scholarship.[4]
Twin traditions
Moers pointed to the ambiguous origins of The Dandy:Brummell to Beerbohm, in a merger of French and English traditions;[5] to the paradox in the dandy's highly structured pose of inaction; and to the role of the female dandy.[6]
In Two Dreisers she indicated Dreiser's twin role on the cusp between 19th-century realism and 20th-century realism, as well as his roots in the different religious traditions of Catholicism and Protestantism.[7]