Something Covered with an Old Blanket”: Nancy and Other Dead Mothers in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Oliver Twist</Emphasis>

In Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection, Julia Kristeva outlines her theory of abjection as a simultaneous fascination and horror stemming from sensorial reminders of the subject’s primal, psychological relation to the mother. In this essay, I show how these psychological perspectives can potentially result in acts of physical violence, which I call the “abject response.” Applied to literature, a study of the abject response explains why sexually active female characters, such as Nancy, the prostitute, in Oliver Twist, suffer extreme acts of physical violence: not simply because they are sexual, as critics of Victorian domestic ideology most often argue, but rather because their particularly female bodies give them an agency which threatens to destroy the mastery of women on which Victorian male identity is based. Reading Oliver Twist through the lens of Kristeva reveals the ways in which Sikes, Nancy’s murderer, psychically links her sexuality to the fatal potential he perceives in her body. This threatening construction of women’s sexuality derives from an imbalanced focus in the male psyche on the repulsion aspect of abjection, a focus socially inscribed as a threatening power, which is used to justify violent usurpations of the feminine in masculine constructions of gender.     

The Emerging Gender Gap: Cultural and Economic Conservatism in the Netherlands 1970–1992

Research on gender differences in political alignments and cultural orientations in the past decades reveals a large value change in women relative to that in men, indicating that women might recently have become less conservative than men, whereas women used to be more conservative in many respects. In this article this possible reversal in the gender gap in recent decades is analyzed. Recent research has demonstrated that in the Netherlands women are presently less conservative than men. This lower level of conservatism in Dutch women is apparent with respect to both economic and cultural issues. It is investigated whether these gender differences are due to a reversal in the gender gap in the Netherlands and if so, how this emerging gender gap can be explained. Three explanations are hypothesized: one in terms of the characteristics of the youngest generations (the gender-cohort model), the second in terms of growing structural equality between women and men in general (the situational/structural model), and a specification of the second model, in which differential effects of structural factors for women and men are presumed to have their effect (the gender-interaction model). Neither of the three tested models was in itself able to fully explain the results. The gender gap can partly be explained by growing structural equality between women and men, partly by the fact that the gender gap is largest in the youngest generations (economic conservatism), and partly by the fact that the gender gap is largest between groups of "independent" women and their male counterparts. Possible additional determinants are also discussed.     

The Prophylactic Mastectomy Dilemma: A Support Group for Women at High Genetic Risk for Breast Cancer

The goal of this pilot study was to test the usefulness of a six session psychoeducational support group for women at high genetic risk for breast cancer who were considering prophylactic mastectomy. The themes of the group sessions included overestimation of and anxiety about risk; desire for hard data; the emotional impact of watching a mother die of breast cancer; concerns about spouse reactions; self- and body image; the decision-making process; and confusion over whom to trust in decision making. Both the participants and the multidisciplinary leaders concluded that as a supplement to individual counseling, a support group is a beneficial and cost-effective treatment modality. Recommendations for the optimal format for such a group are described.     

Aging and Opportunity: Growing Older in Clara Reeve's School for Widows

The state of widowhood has traditionally been understood in terms of what is missing from a woman's life--a husband--rather than what she is, and this traditional practice of negative definition is reflected in the novels of eighteenth-century England. This essay will examine some of the stereotypes of the widow that were prevalent during the eighteenth century, and present Clara Reeve's novel The School for Widows (1791) as a strong and valid response to the pervasive negative perception of widowhood and of older women in general.     

Why do battered women stay?: Three decades of research

A review of the domestic violence research was conducted to assess the most salient factors that predict the likelihood of a woman remaining in or leaving an abusive relationship. The research is still in its early stage and no single theory can confidently predict this tendency on the part of battered women. Research that currently appears to provide the best explanations for remaining in an abusive relationship and factors that enable women to end their abuse are summarized.     

Book Reviews

Dalton, Dennis, Mahatma Gandhi: Nonviolent Power in Action
Goodman, David G. and Miyazawa, Masanori, Jews in the Japanese Mind: The History and Uses of a Cultural Stereotype
Rejai, Mostafa and Phillips, Kay, World Military Leaders: A Collective and Comparative Analysis     

Shame, Women, and Group Psychotherapy

This paper addresses gender-related experiences of shame, focusing on the shame-prone woman. Specifically the varied manifest behaviors, dynamics, and defenses commonly observed in shame-prone women are described. It is recommended that the addition of group therapy to individual treatment, once the client is ready, can expedite progress for these patients, as they are more able to integrate previously disowned and shamed aspects of themselves. A number of potential problems when working with these patients in group are identified and explored.     

Subjectivity and Class Consciousness: The Development of Class Identity

In this paper, the author explores issues of self and identity, in particular the development of consciousness of social class and the negotiation of conflicting class identities. Literature on working-class students and academics from the working class indicates that upward mobility from working class to professional class can be disorienting due to class-related sociocultural differences and the internalization of class conflicts. By drawing upon one case from an ethnographic study with ten female professors from the working class, the author explores the development of one woman's working-class consciousness and the ways in which it influenced her teaching. Detailed analyses of three narratives from one interview are presented that highlight particular contexts and events in a process of class identity development.     

Why do battered women stay?: Three decades of research

A review of the domestic violence research was conducted to assess the most salient factors that predict the likelihood of a woman remaining in or leaving an abusive relationship. The research is still in its early stage and no single theory can confidently predict this tendency on the part of battered women. Research that currently appears to provide the best explanations for remaining in an abusive relationship and factors that enable women to end their abuse are summarized.