Beatrice, Guinevere, Joan and Nicolette: a cross-section of Britain’s perception of womanhood in the long nineteenth century and its convergence with medievalism

Medievalism – manifestations of the Middle Ages in the post-medieval world – intersected with both ‘progressive’ and ‘conservative’ discourses of gender in the long nineteenth century in Britain. Nineteenth-century medievalism has been studied extensively, but the detailed interplay between this phenomenon and gender politics, particularly the representation of ‘womanhood’, is a rich area that will profit from the more extensive and nuanced analysis this thesis offers. The thesis analyses four medieval female figures, distinct in their connection to diverse aspects of debates on womanhood, in order to develop a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the phenomenon of nineteenth-century British medievalism and its inextricable interconnectedness with gendered discourses of the time.