Elaine Showalter was born on January 21, 1941, in Boston, Massachusetts. She studied English at Bryn Mawr College (B.A., 1962), Brandeis University (M.A., 1964), and the University of California, Davis (Ph.D., 1970). She turned her doctoral thesis into her first book, "A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists from Brontë to Lessing" (1977), a study in which she created a critical framework for analyzing literature by women.
Showalter joined the faculty of Douglass College, the women's division of Rutgers University, in 1969, where she developed women's studies courses and began editing and contributing articles to books and periodicals about women's literature. She later taught at Rutgers and Princeton University and has been a television critic for People magazine and a commentator on BBC radio and television. Showalter specializes in Victorian literature and the Fin-de-siècle and often writes on madness and hysteria in literature, specifically in women's writing and in the portrayal of female characters. She is the founder of gynocriticism – "a female framework for the analysis of women's literature."
Showalter retired from Princeton University in 2003. She now divides her time between Washington, D.C. and London, where she was recently elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In 2012, she also received an honorary degree from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and won the Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism for "A Jury of Her Peers: American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx" (2009).
Topics include book reviews and television criticism
Topics include book reviews and television and film criticism
Topics primarily include book reviews
Topics include book reviews, play criticism, and female sexuality
Topics include book reviews, television criticism, and psychoanalysis
Topics include book reviews, feminism, and research on women
Topics include book reviews, television criticism, and terrorism
Topics include book reviews and gender and cultural theory
Topics include book reviews, children's literature, and anxiety
Topics include book reviews and film criticism
Topics include book reviews and television criticism
This collection consists of the personal and professional papers of Elaine Showalter, professor of English, emeritus, at Princeton University, scholar and critic of nineteenth century American and British literature, and teacher and founder of gynocriticism – "a female framework for the analysis of women's literature." Materials include correspondence, newspaper and magazine articles by Showalter, and research clippings and handwritten notes, all related to such topics as television criticism, feminism, and women's liberation. This collection dates from 1967 to 2017 and is arranged into 6 series.
Series 1, PERSONAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL, 1970-2006, includes articles about Showalter's career, curriculum vitae, and photos of Showalter. This series is arranged alphabetically by record type.
Series 2, CORRESPONDENCE, 1967-2012, includes general correspondence such as event invitations and scholarly discourse, and correspondence regarding an honorary degree conferral and a visiting professorship. This series is arranged chronologically.
Series 3, WRITINGS AND RELATED, 1970-2017, includes offprints, proofs, typed drafts, and clippings of scholarly articles, books, and magazine and newspaper articles written by Showalter. Titles include "Mrs. Klein: The Mother, the daughter, the Thief, and their Critics," "A Jury of Her Peers: Celebrating American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx." Magazine and newspaper articles appeared in various publications including People Magazine and the London Review of Books. Topics include women's liberation, feminism, and television and film criticism. This series is arranged alphabetically by writing format then by title.
Series 4, RESEARCH, 1969-2010, contains articles, clippings, a flyer, and handwritten notes on topics such as feminism, women's studies, and abortion counseling. This series is arranged alphabetically by record type.
Series 5, PRINT MATERIAL, 1970-1999, contains bound booklets regarding "Female Studies" and a booklet titled "Slate on Paper" regarding events of the late 1990s, as well as two "Princeton Alumni Weekly" magazines featuring an article about English Showalter, Elaine Showalter's husband, and an article written by Elaine Showalter. This series is arranged alphabetically by title.
Series 6, ELECTRONIC RECORDS, n.d., contains two VHS tapes featuring Showalter. This series is arranged by record type then by title on carrier.
All researchers seeking to publish materials from the collections of the John Hay Library are requested to complete a Notice of Intent to Publish, prior to reproducing, quoting, or otherwise publishing any portion or extract from this collection. Although Brown University has physical ownership of the collection and the materials contained therein, it does not claim literary rights. It is up to the researcher to determine the owners of the literary rights and to obtain any necessary permissions from them.
Elaine Showalter papers, MS.2020.007, Feminist Theory Archive, Brown University Library.
This collection is arranged into 6 series.
There are no restrictions on access, except that the collection can only be seen by prior appointment. Some materials may be stored off-site and cannot be produced on the same day on which they are requested.
Gift of Elaine Showalter in 2020.
See also the papers of Elaine Showalter, 1968-2001, held at London University, London School of Economics, The Women's Library. (https://archives.lse.ac.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=7ESH)