Living 'wilfully': the same-sex marriage ceremony of 'Michael Field' by the Smutt River

Article

Bickle, Sharon. 2016. "Living 'wilfully': the same-sex marriage ceremony of 'Michael Field' by the Smutt River." Hecate: an interdisciplinary journal of women's liberation. 41 (1/2), pp. 116-128.
Article Title

Living 'wilfully': the same-sex marriage ceremony of 'Michael Field' by the Smutt River

ERA Journal ID32790
Article CategoryArticle
Authors
AuthorBickle, Sharon
Journal TitleHecate: an interdisciplinary journal of women's liberation
Journal Citation41 (1/2), pp. 116-128
Number of Pages13
Year2016
Place of PublicationBrisbane, Australia
ISSN0311-4198
1839-4213
Web Address (URL)https://hecate.communications-arts.uq.edu.au
Abstract

This article focuses on the relationship and life writings of the late- Victorian writing collaboration known as 'Michael Field.' It considers the notion of willfulness developed by Sara Ahmed in Willful Subjects as a way of interpreting Katharine Bradley and Edith Cooper ('Michael Field') and their use of willfulness as a productive narrative strategy particularly in the joint diary, 'Works and Days'. This becomes apparent through the examination of the account of Bradley and Cooper’s wedding ceremony by Smutt River, and Bradley's symbolic and Eucharistic absorption of the spirit of Cooper’s dead father James into a new and explicitly willful narrative of their married life in Richmond.

Keywordsauthorship; collaboration; Willful Subjects (book); narration (rhetoric); BRADLEY, Katharine Harris, 1846-1914; COOPER, Edith Emma, 1862-1913; AHMED, Sara; Michael Field
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020470504. British and Irish literature
Public Notes

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Byline AffiliationsSchool of Arts and Communication
Institution of OriginUniversity of Southern Queensland
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