Time is Dead. What Next? - Age and Gender in Modernism

This dissertation presents as its main objective the analysis of the relation between the concepts of age and gender in Modernist literature through the observation of two works written in this period, Rose Macaulay’s Dangerous Ages (1921) and Vera Brittain’s Testament of Youth (1933). The analysis of these concepts and their connection is done in hopes of illuminating the realities faced by women who fit into the Modernist movement and period, which cooperates to broadening the horizons of what Modernism was and what it stood for. Starting from the attempt to find a definition or, at least, a description of what Modernism was and what were its main historical influences, characteristics and collaborators, it was noted that this movement’s description has been, for reasons which are often also related to age and gender, limited to rather exclusive - albeit relevant – social groups. However, when expanding the perception of what the elements which formed this movement were, it is possible to include new names and groups in it, particularly female authors who can also be considered “middlebrow” authors, which was the case for Macaulay and Brittain. Considering that one of the examined works is a memoir and the other is a work of fiction, the intersections regarding gendered views on age between the two works can offer insightful observations on this topic, provoking questions surrounding not only the previously mentioned age and gender and their touching points, but how these issues may affect women in different stages of life in the context of Modernist society and literature. In order to explore these questions, there was not only historical research and research on the definition of Modernism through the works of authors such as Peter Childs and Leigh Wilson, but also studies on the two authors’ personal lives through their biographies and studies on the topic – by Alice Crawford about Rose Macaulay, and by Paul Berry, Mark Bostridge and Vera Brittain herself on her life, respectively -, besides studies on feminism and ageism through the reading of works by researchers such as Kathleen Woodward and Cynthia Port, amongst others. After the phases of historical and cultural analysis of the period followed by a brief study of the authors’ lives and the consideration of gender and age issues, the third chapter of this dissertation specifically compares Dangerous Ages (1921) and Testament of Youth (1933) through Modernist lenses while considering all the preparatory research, exposing several parallels between one work and the other when it comes to the issues at hand, highlighting this period’s characteristic biases towards the youth and what it represented for women who lived in those years, closely observing the reinforced limitations women faced due to the combination of sexism and ageism. Ultimately, however biased towards the youth, the previously mentioned combination some way or another affected all ages and understanding that collaborates to having a wider and better comprehension of what the needs of different groups and their struggles are inside the broad terms of Modern and Modernist Womanhood.