Vulnerability in the Writings of Elizabeth Bowen

Abstract

The word ‘vulnerable’ is etymologically derived from the Latin noun vulnus (‘wound’). Across four themed chapters, I argue that vulnerability is at the heart of Elizabeth Bowen’s work, focusing especially on seven of Bowen’s novels: The Hotel, The Heat of the Day, The Death of the Heart, The Last September, Eva Trout, The Little Girls, and A World of Love. Vulnerability, for Bowen, operates in three indissociably linked registers: the physical; the psychological and emotional; and the verbal. While many critics – such as Andrew Bennett, Nicholas Royle, Victoria Gildersleeve, and Neil Corcoran – have written about suffering and trauma in the writings of Bowen, there has not been a study that focuses specifically on the concept of vulnerability in her novels. Allan Hepburn, in his introduction to Listening In, states that Bowen is ‘Never unsympathetic towards those who suffered’ (16). This thesis extends Bowen criticism by offering the first study of her writings to be informed specifically by vulnerability, arguing that the writings of Bowen are acutely preoccupied with forms of vulnerability. Besides that, it argues that vulnerability in Bowen is not just a theoretical topic. Rather it is an indispensable element in the reading experience, as Bowen’s novels make us as readers feel vulnerable and even enable us to experience our own vulnerability in new ways. Moreover, looking at her novels from the perspective of vulnerability prompts us to reconsider what a novel is. The project’s scope covers the three interrelated aspects of vulnerability in Bowen’s writings: the physical, the psychological, and the linguistic. Through a close engagement with representations of vulnerability in Bowen’s novels, critical essays, autobiographical sketches, and letters, this thesis examines how her writings anticipate and enrich our understanding of current vulnerability theory. It builds upon the arguments of many prominent Bowen critics, including Andrew Bennett, Nicholas Royle, Maud Ellmann, Victoria Gildersleeve, Neil Corcoran, Allan Hepburn, and Victoria Coulson. Theorists and philosophers such as Sigmund Freud, Jacques Derrida, Hélène Cixous, Martin Heidegger, Judith Butler, and Jean-Michel Ganteau are also essential to my study.