prezentacja kowalik
Introduction
In our presentation we would like to discuss themes connected with sexual abuse, victimization, women sexuality and loss of sexual innocence of the main protagonists. Firstly, I would like to explain the definition of the sexual abuse :
Sexual abuse, also referred to as molestation, is forcing undesired sexual behavior by one person upon another. When that force is immediate, of short duration, or infrequent, it is called sexual assault. The offender is referred to as a sexual abuser or molester.
The first story we would like to discuss as far as the sexual abuse is concerned is ‘The Little Governess’ by K. Mansfield :
1. The Victorian Governess Novel
As many readers of Victorian novels know, the governess was indeed a common figure in fiction of that period. The governess novel must be connected with the nineteenth-century anxiety concerning middle-class female employment in general, and governess work in particular. The social position of a governess was ambivalent. She was not a member of the family and would be treated by some families as a servant, but she was not in fact a servant, although she was a dependent. The ‘governess question’ was much debated in Victorian newspapers and periodicals, and much Victorian fiction included representations of governesses, often as part of a wish-fulfilment romantic plot in which she is saved by marriage.
Katherine Mansfield in her novels often depict women in a patriarchal world, where they are often isolated, excluded and in a position of weakness, showing tremendous naivety and innocence in the way they approach the world.
“The Little Governess” is a story about a naïve young woman who gets tricked by an old man in a foreign country. The young lady has traveled from England to Germany for a position as a governess for children. However it seems that she is not more than a child herself. She meets an old man on the train who offers to give her a tour of the city before she meets her employer. She accepts,
In our presentation we would like to discuss themes connected with sexual abuse, victimization, women sexuality and loss of sexual innocence of the main protagonists. Firstly, I would like to explain the definition of the sexual abuse :
Sexual abuse, also referred to as molestation, is forcing undesired sexual behavior by one person upon another. When that force is immediate, of short duration, or infrequent, it is called sexual assault. The offender is referred to as a sexual abuser or molester.
The first story we would like to discuss as far as the sexual abuse is concerned is ‘The Little Governess’ by K. Mansfield :
1. The Victorian Governess Novel
As many readers of Victorian novels know, the governess was indeed a common figure in fiction of that period. The governess novel must be connected with the nineteenth-century anxiety concerning middle-class female employment in general, and governess work in particular. The social position of a governess was ambivalent. She was not a member of the family and would be treated by some families as a servant, but she was not in fact a servant, although she was a dependent. The ‘governess question’ was much debated in Victorian newspapers and periodicals, and much Victorian fiction included representations of governesses, often as part of a wish-fulfilment romantic plot in which she is saved by marriage.
Katherine Mansfield in her novels often depict women in a patriarchal world, where they are often isolated, excluded and in a position of weakness, showing tremendous naivety and innocence in the way they approach the world.
“The Little Governess” is a story about a naïve young woman who gets tricked by an old man in a foreign country. The young lady has traveled from England to Germany for a position as a governess for children. However it seems that she is not more than a child herself. She meets an old man on the train who offers to give her a tour of the city before she meets her employer. She accepts,