A Woman's Pastoral: Dialogue with Literary Tradition in Barbara Pym's Fiction

Contents: Abbreviations; Part One: Introductory: Chapter One, The Mode of Pym's Writing: 1. Poetical Broth; 2. Chronotope of Everyday Life; 3. Pastoral, Elegiac, Comic; 4. A Woman's Point / Chapter Two, What Is Pastoral?: 1. A Glance at Its Evolution; 2. Problems of Meaning and Status; 3. Principal Characteristics; Part Two: Intertextual Space and Private Arcadia: Chapter Three, Intertextual Signals of Pastoral: 1. Abundance of Literary References; 2. Titles and Epigraphs; 3. Allusive Names; 4. Dialogization of Allusions; 5. Poetic Quotation Contests / Chapter Four, The Female Arcadian: 1. Caught Between Love and Literature; 2. Woman as Reader and Critic; 3. The Autothematic Motif of a Woman Writer / Chapter Five, Idyllic Time-Space: 1. Another Arcadia; 2. Church of England; 3. A Room of One's Own; 4. Cyclical Time; 5. Communion with Nature; Part Three: Transformations of Pastoral Ethos: Chapter Six, Idealization and Sublimation of Desire: 1. Love in Pastoral; 2. Demystifying Domestic Idyll; 3. Challenging the Sentimental Novel Formula; 4. Celebrating Unfortunate Love; 5. Caring for Animals / Chapter Seven, A Woman-Centred Pastoral Society: 1. Bucolic Community and Ethos; 2. Pastoral of Female Friendship and Solitude; 3. Spinster in the Role of the Fool / Chapter Eight, Female Georgic: 1. Women's Domestic Work; 2. The Ethos of Service; 3. Therapeutic Tidying; 4. Idyllic Meals; 5. Women Eating Alone and Together; Conclusion: Barbara Pym's Pastoral Novels; Bibliography; Summary in Polish; Index