The Woman Writer in Mid-Twentieth Century Middlebrow Fiction: Conceptualizing Creativity

A consideration of three mid-twentieth century middlebrow novels that depict women writers of popular fiction can cast fresh light on attitudes about creativity, gender and genre in writing of this period. The novels’ positioning of authors and readers, and their presentation of the writing process, offer an intervention into ongoing debates about the literary marketplace. These texts complicate our understanding of the relationship among middlebrow, popular and modernist writing of the period. Under examination are: E.F. Benson’s Secret Lives (1932), Mary Renault’s The Friendly Young Ladies (1944) and Elizabeth Taylor’s Angel (1957).