Abstract

Using a feminist media historical lens, this dissertation examines three women artist-illustrators who participated in the early twentieth century wood engraving revival in the United Kingdom: Gwen Raverat (1885-1957), Clare Leighton (1898-1989), and Joan Hassall (1906-1988). Little scholarship exists on the wood engraving revival from a feminist media or book history perspective. To fill this gap, I examine the biographies of these women and the books and magazines they illustrated in their historical context, with attention to how their gender impacted their experience. This dissertation finds that women's participation in the wood engraving revival is significant because it afforded opportunities for women to become professional artists through a medium that had previously been controlled by men. They influenced print culture domestically and globally by illustrating political and literary magazines to broaden their visual appeal and by illustrating a variety of fiction that reflected how commercial publishing was being impacted by the "Book Beautiful" movement. This research further reveals how social networks and institutions played a complex role in the careers of women artist-illustrators in this period, and, as a result, in the development of the book in the twentieth century.

Notes

If this is your thesis or dissertation, and want to learn how to access it or for more information about readership statistics, contact us at STARS@ucf.edu

Graduation Date

2023

Semester

Summer

Advisor

Bishop, Louise Kane

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Arts and Humanities

Degree Program

Texts and Technology

Identifier

CFE0009757; DP0027865

URL

https://purls.library.ucf.edu/go/DP0027865

Language

English

Release Date

August 2023

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access)

Download

Share

COinS