Her name is blood: Situating Gertrude Blood within the flâneuse, and walking virtually

Date of Award

2021

Degree Name

M.A. in English

Department

Department of English

Advisor/Chair

Kirsten Mendoza

Abstract

Women are oftentimes forgotten in history due to the pursuit of their male colleagues. Much is the case for Lady Colin Campbell, nee Gertrude Elizabeth Blood (b. 3 May 1857), as she was left behind in history. However, unlike other similar stories, Blood was subject to the thoughts and opinions of a nation when she and her husband went through the longest and nastiest - dismissed - divorce trial in UK history. After the trial, she engaged in journalistic writing, submitting over a period of time to the periodical The World which would eventually turn into her essays A Woman's Walks. Despite her popularity at the time Blood and her writing faded out of the public sphere. What this project intends to accomplish is to reintroduce Gertrude Elizabeth Blood back into society not for her scandal, but for how her work can be considered part of the Flaneur genre. As a woman born to a family capable of social climbing and then eventually a shunned member of the upper class, Blood's work can shed unique light on the machinations of the Flaneur and the effects of class and gender. This proposed project will perform an analysis to (a) engage in understanding of the flaneur, working the flâneuse into the definition of the flaneur using Blood's writing and (b) a reintroduction of Blood as a woman worthy of analysis, and appreciation for her work as a woman who went against the grain of society.

Keywords

British and Irish Literature, European Studies, Gender, History, Journalism, Flaneur, flaneuse, flanerie, walking, uncommercial traveller, traveling, marxist-feminist, marxist-feminist critique, Gertrude Elizabeth Blood, Gertrude Blood, Lady Colin Campbell, capitalism, patriarchy, hegemony, patriarchal-capitalism

Rights Statement

Copyright © 2021, author.

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