Evil Women, Worms, Monkeys, Poison Ivy, and so on: Fiction of Women in 19th Century British Popular Culture

Cultural representations, whether visual or literary, not only reflect and express a predetermined ideology, but also actively participate in its construction and transformation, making sense of the world through the specific codes they employ. In the mid-19th century, women's sexuality was a crucial issue, and discourses on sexuality were firmly situated in power relations, as they were produced by historical subjects with varying degrees of power. In this sense, the representation of women in 19th century culture constitutes a specific discourse constructed from the perspective of a specific subject who holds and exercises power: the white, colonial male. I hope that this presentation will be meaningful in the sense that this discourse constitutes an important background in Virginia Woolf's literature and work.