Raz, Orna

Orna Raz is a Lecturer in English at the College of Management, Rishon LeZion, Israel. She holds graduate degrees from the University of Missouri-Columbia and the University of Iowa, and received her Ph.D. in English Literature from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Dr. Raz’s current field of interest is researching the literary manifestations of social changes in England during the 1950’s. She has published and presented a number of articles on the works of Barbara Pym, education and feminism, the Church of England, and the representation of radio broadcasts in British novels, as well as translations of the works of numerous Israeli authors and poets.

Social Dimensions in the Novels of Barbara Pym, 1949-1963

2007 0-7734-5387-3
This study considers the six novels written by English novelist, Barbara Pym (1913-1980), between 1949 and 1963, which demonstrate the response of a specific class of people, represented by her heroines, to the dramatic social, cultural and demographic changes that took place in Britain at the time. Treating Pym’s 1950s novels as social-historical sources, this work attempts to analyze the way in which her portrayals of society, like those of so many other English writers, served both as a testimonies and critiques of the times in which she lived. The focal point of Pym’s novels was the interaction between the individual and the community: the Church, the parish or the work place. Therefore, this book attempts to reconstruct the social world of the female protagonists, moving from the public to the private domain, thereby opening up Pym’s novels to a new generation of readers.