BOWEN,ELIZABETH - REALISM, MODERNISM AND GENDERED IDENTITY IN HER NOVELS OF THE 1930S

Elizabeth Bowen's novels are not often seen as 'modernist'; however, l ike other novelists of the thirties, her work in this period can be se en as both heavily influenced by, and also reacting against, modernist writing, particularly in her case that of Virginia Woolf. The article focusses on To the North and The Death of the Heart, and discusses wa ys in which these novels use modernist and realist modes, sometimes in opposition, in order to represent the problematic nature of reality a nd the self for their women characters. It traces links between these novels' representations of women, the dissatisfaction of modernist wri ters with the realist tradition, and the ambivalent attitude to modern ism felt by many 1930s' writers. It argues that Elizabeth Bowen's nove ls of the 1930s are engaged in a critique of both realist and modernis t modes, and of the gendered assumptions of each tradition.