ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the keyconcepts discusses in the subsequent chapters in this book. This chapter explores the historical context of Victorian women's education and its emphasis on sewing, then turns to Olive Schreiner's From Man to Man for an analysis of how the so-called first New Woman author utilized the dual literacy that women's education fostered. This chapter traces the history of a highly contentious item of Victorian women's underwear the corsetin order to illustrate how New Woman writers employed their dual literacy in print and dress culture to negotiate the complicated relationship between women's clothing, sexual morality, and social activism. The chapter examines the historical contexts of the debate over the corset and the female silhouettes it created in order to illustrate what social claims New Woman authors made by dressing their heroines as they did. This chapter considers dressmaking in Margaret Oliphant's Kirsteen in light of historical accounts of seamstresses and dress shops.
