Abstract
The portrayal of women in London theatres in the early years of the twentieth century demonstrated a divergence between literary representation and social reality. Exposition of this imagery of women within the fixed time frame of a single year, 1914 and the confines of one city, London, provides an encapsulation of socio-cultural and socio-political attitudes. The study of the performance and reception of pertinent stage productions reveals the diversity of approaches dramatists employed when engaging with the imagery of women in Edwardian England. While the majority of theatre managers preferred to support the works of British male dramatists, a few minor theatres risked commercial failure by putting on plays by unknown female playwrights or by unpopular dramatists from the Continent. The images of womanhood portrayed by these three categories of playwrights -British men, British women and European men - were diverse, ranging between Victorian stereotypes, Edwardian social types and controversial heroines. Employing a methodology that combines New Historicism with feminist criticism, this study examines the dramatic productions that illuminated Edwardian England and served to reinforce the ideolologies of the day. Literary criticism of the plays performed in 1914 is enhanced by placing them within their social and historical context. Although several of the works have been published, many of the plays by unknown authors are examined for the first time, thus contributing to the evolution of the literary canon.