Iveta Jusová
Vol. 19, No. 1 (Spring 2000), 27-55

This essay extends the work begun by Laura Chrisman of placing George Egerton, a New Woman writer, within the imperialist context of late Victorian England. Rather than focusing exclusively on Egerton’s frankness about female sexuality and gender roles, as most previous scholars of Egerton have done, this paper explores the intersections of gender and sexuality with race and class. Ultimately diverging from Chrisman’s conclusions about Egerton’s conservatism within a colonialist context, the paper argues that Egerton went beyond most other New Women novelists in this regard. Her disrespect for conventional English middle-class values and sensibilities, her lack of direct investment in the maintenance of the British empire, and her engagement with Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy freed Egerton to explore discursive strategies that subverted middle-class values and, in some instances, the colonial project.