Writing the Unwritten: The Childless New Woman Identity in Sara Jeannette Duncan’s A Daughter of Today
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4312/elope.22.2.131-143Keywords:
Sara Jeannette Duncan, A Daughter of Today, Canadian literature, new woman studies, motherhood studiesAbstract
Sara Jeannette Duncan creates a groundbreaking New Woman heroine in the protagonist of her novel A Daughter of Today (1894). The text portrays the struggles of Elfrida Bell in pursuing her life endeavour of creating her individual version of female identity by becoming a woman artist who leaves motherhood aside. By distancing female identity from all traditional conceptualizations in the character of Elfrida, Duncan writes the unwritten since a childless and artistic female subjectivity is portrayed as valid and valuable. A study from the intersectional critical space between New Woman and motherhood studies sheds new light on the protagonist of the novel, as well as on controversial elements of the text, such as its ending.
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