Abstract
Abstract Shirley Jackson’s essays in popular women’s magazines negotiate the gendered tensions and commercial contradictions of postwar print culture. This essay shows how the women in Jackson’s essays are figures of the fraught convergence of women’s public affiliation and the restrained politics of gender critique. These female figures are also representative of broader issues in US print culture after the Second World War. In particular, Jackson’s essays represent how a certain strain of feminist writing—sometimes known as “domestic humor”—was absorbed within the market forces of print capitalism. To explain this absorption, I draw on mid-century theories of market segmentation.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have