Janet Hobhouse: un’identità lacerata

Abstract

This work is the most detailed picture of Janet Hobhouse, a writer whose novels were translated in to many foreign languages and published at the same time both in America and in England by the most important editors, but who has been forgotten nowadays. As our aim is to propose an original interpretation of her novel The Furies, we focused on Janet Hobhouse's posthumous work, considering it as the synopsis of the author's ideology and of her feelings, as well as the highest expression of her talent and so not only a mere autobiographical work, as it is too often identified by the critics. We analyzed The Furies pointing out that it was written by combining mythology and symbolism and then we examined its peculiar blend of fairy tale and autobiography’. We investigated the author'sWeltanschaung drawing it from the comparative study of her works: novels, essays and articles. Moreover, in order to codify and to specify each topic she cherished, we had to examine the plot of her novels and into every theme they deal with; the result of our method is a dynamic account of Janet Hobhouse's thought and of its evolution in relationship to every topic she dealt with.