The Politics of Education in Dorothy Richardson’s Dental Record Writings: The Struggle Over Schooling in the Modernist Literary Field

Abstract

ABSTRACT Dorothy Richardson is often posited as one of the originators of stream-of-consciousness style. However, she is less known for her non-fiction writing. This article examines a “comment” from Richardson’s column, “Comments by a Layman”, in the journal, The Dental Record. I argue that in the piece “A Liberal Education”, Richardson articulates a reformist socialism and sets herself apart from other modernists on the issue of education in that she wanted to reform actually existing institutions rather than conceive of new forms of education. In looking at Richardson’s writings as a form of what Pierre Bourdieu called “position-taking”, I seek to show the importance of her socialist non-fiction.