RECORDING ACCESS – “That Wicked Paris”: Fashioning the Good Englishwoman
Professor Amy L. Montz (University of Southern Indiana) gave our November lecture. She is the Fulbright Distinguished Scholar at the University of Manchester.
The crises of authenticity sparked by the expanding British Empire and increasing contact with France often were articulated through fictional and non-fictional discussions of fashion. As Englishwomen were figured as symbols of nation, attention to their presentations of self, and therefore of Englishness, became anxious attention to their fashion choices. The minute details of dress – petticoats, turbans, crinolines, and fabrics – became a particular point of discussion for Sarah Stickney Ellis, Eliza Lynn Linton, and Elizabeth Gaskell, and these pieces of ensemble were read for national as well as personal origin and allegiance.
In this talk, Amy argues that Gaskell’s Cranford (1853) offers a microcosmic view of the larger English concern over the Empire’s and France’s influence on the people of England through Englishwomen’s fashionable choices. Through its discussions of shawls, crinolines, and red umbrellas, Gaskell’s novel demonstrates that everyday items of domesticity speak not only of the concerns of women, but also of the concerns of nation.
Amy’s book, Dressing for England: Fashion and Nationalism in Victorian Novels will be published by SUNY Press in December 2025.
Tickets are £5 for members, £6 for non-members. Simply pay on the door or book online with the button below (no booking fee).
This ticket is for online viewing of a recording of Amy’s talk. The Gaskell Society is a UK registered charity (1098017) and your entry fee helps us to host future events. We will keep the talk available to view until 30 November 2025. Use the link below to book your place.
