Feminism of a ‘weak man’: feminist discourse in the novel ‘In the market for murder’ by T. E. Kinsey

When studying a complex phenomenon such as national identity, it seems important to consider with special care those aspects that have a tendency to change over time. An important aspect of British national identity is the British vision of the concepts of masculinity and femininity. One of the sources reflecting the way the British presently perceive the mentioned concepts is modern British literature. Remarkably, yet not unpredictably, a targeted study of works written by British authors reveals that feminist discourse plays the primary role where authors express their attitude to masculinity and femininity. In the paper, this phenomenon is demonstrated based on the analysis of the novel In the Market for Murder by T. E. Kinsey. We have identified and analyzed a number of feminist discourse elements in the text of this literary work. First, Kinsey introduced in his novel an antinomy of a ‘weak man’ and a ‘strong woman’, which is a fairly typical manifestation of feminist discourse. This contrast is expressed through the representation of male characters as defective and weak, and female ones, accordingly, as self-sufficient and strong. The latter ones are perceived to be even stronger, having weak males at the background. Likewise, the feminist image of the ‘new woman’, namely a progressive post-Victorian woman, is clearly expressed through the image of the main character of the novel. In addition, far from being unbiased in favor of feminism is the system of literary images in the novel. Taking into account all the aforementioned, and considering the fact of the author being a male, it proves possible to allege that the studied novel to some extent reflects the reality where the feminist paradigm occupies a dominating position in British culture and is accepted thereby as given.