Out in Public with Gaskell’s Women

A talk by Dr Flore Janssen

Elizabeth Gaskell’s novels form perfect illustrations of the mid-nineteenth-century debates around women in the public sphere. Crossing class boundaries and addressing the world of work, novels like Mary Barton, Ruth, and North and South show women whose work and personal commitments require them to assert their presence in the public sphere, both literally, walking alone in busy streets, and figuratively, in their engagement with matters of law and business. This talk addresses how Gaskell and her female characters navigate the public sphere in its many forms.  

Dr Flore Janssen is a specialist in nineteenth-century women’s writing and social activism. She received her PhD from Birkbeck, University of London in 2018, and has since held a postdoctoral fellowship supported by the Wellcome Institutional Strategic Support Fund. In October 2019 she will take up a Visiting Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Institute of English Studies, University of London.

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All meetings are held at Francis Holland School for Girls, 39 Graham Terrace London SW1W 8JF. The school is only a three-minute walk from Sloane Square tube station on the District and Circle line. This central location means that the meeting is convenient for anyone interested  in Elizabeth Gaskell’s writing. 

Everyone is welcome any time after 12.45pm. Please bring a packed lunch. Talks begin at 2pm and usually last about an hour. Each talk is followed by questions, and then tea is served.

At each meeting there is a bring-and-buy book stall in aid of The Gaskell House in Manchester. Please bring any books that you wish to rehome and which will be of interest to other members, marked with an appropriate price. If, at the end of the meeting, your books have not been sold, we will ask you to take them away with you again.

We ask for a contribution of £5.00 to cover speakers’ expenses, a donation to the school and tea. If you have any queries please contact Jenny Keaveney
07791 309784     

Come along – you will be sure of a friendly welcome!