The popularity and pervasiveness of eugenic discourse during the modernist
period in England and Ireland raised many questions about race, class, and gender.
While Hitler's Nazi "experiment" ultimately demonstrated the consequences of
implementing eugenic ideas, forcing eugenicists to abandon, or at least mask, their
theories, the eugenics movement before World War II attracted scholars, scientists,
and literary figures with disparate political and social agendas. One of the most
significant impacts of eugenic thought was the position in which it placed women
who, as a result of the various women's movements, were beginning to forego
marriage in favor of education and careers. Eugenicists reconfigured motherhood as
a tool for preserving and improving the race, seeking to return educated bourgeois
women to the home and forcing them to choose between enjoying their newly won
emancipation and "saving" the human race. This project examines the works of G.B.
Shaw, W.B. Yeats, and Emily Lawless, who all participated in the discourse of
motherhood and eugenics, though from very different political perspectives, each
infusing their literature with eugenic language that reflects both the larger eugenic
ideas of their era and their own separate social visions. / Graduation date: 2002
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/29030 |
| Date | 10 May 2002 |
| Creators | Tracy, Hannah R. |
| Contributors | Davison, Neil R. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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