Engendering New Motherhood: Tactile Exchange in George Egerton’s Keynotes (1893) and Flies in Amber (1905)

Isobel Sigley

doi:10.46911/qakg7864

Abstract

George Egerton’s Keynotes (1893) is a seminal text of the New Woman movement at the fin de siècle and has garnered significant critical attention over the last four decades. Egerton went on to publish four more volumes of short fiction, with decreasing popularity, the last being Flies in Amber (1905). This article addresses the shortage of scholarship on Egerton’s later writing by assessing the consistency with which she invokes moments of touch and object exchange as a means to radicalise motherhood in two popular and well-known early stories, “A Cross Line” and “The Spell of the White Elf” (Keynotes), and a less-known later story “Mammy” (Flies in Amber). Through tactile exchange, Egerton’s female protagonists establish a maternal network that challenges patriarchal hypocrisy and preserves their New Womanhood. By understanding Egerton’s valorisation of maternity as a “New Motherhood,” this article challenges claims of essentialism and accusations of conventionality in Egerton’s writing while reinstating the cultural value of her later publications.

Highlights

In “Flies in Amber” we hear again the emphatic, purposeful voice of the lady who wrote “Keynotes” in the days when the Pioneer Club was something novel and well-advertised, and the “Yellow Book” was in existence or about to come into existence
The majority of the tales deal with “sex” problems; and some of the sayings-bythe-way are, to say the least of them, “frank”, while at times, too, in the descriptions of lovemaking there is a lack of delicacy and restraint; all of which is a pity, the lady being a writer of real power, who can present a subtle analysis of a feminine character
The same could be said of Egerton’s later publication Flies in Amber (1905), which achieved, as The Bookman attests above, “a subtle analysis of a feminine character” and maintained the “keen” dislike of conventionality and “high revolt” that was so esteemed in Keynotes (1893), though it garnered significantly less acclaim, less commercial success, and subsequently less critical attention

Summary

Introduction

In “Flies in Amber” we hear again the emphatic, purposeful voice of the lady who wrote “Keynotes” in the days when the Pioneer Club was something novel and well-advertised, and the “Yellow Book” was in existence or about to come into existence. Keywords George Egerton; tactile exchange; touch; motherhood; popular; New Woman.

Results

Conclusion