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Separating the women from the girls: girls and girlhood in nineteenth-century woman's fiction
Irvin, Amanda L.
Irvin, Amanda L.
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[Fort Worth, Tex.] : Texas Christian University,
Date
2012
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Abstract
Separating the Women from the Girls: Girls and Girlhood in Nineteenth-Century Woman's Fiction, revises the notions presented in scholarship on popular nineteenth-century woman's fiction (studied primarily for what it reveals about the experiences of early American women) to include the young girls who act as the main protagonists. Separating representations of girlhood from womanhood in these cultural texts has the potential to change how we discuss the female experience in America. Through a study of letters, diaries, memoirs, periodicals, novels, and popular advice columns, I generate a definition of nineteenth-century girlhood as distinct from womanhood, which challenges the dominant idea that nineteenth-century girlhood was nothing more than a time of training to be a wife and mother. The texts I consider in this project--Susan Warner's The Wide, Wide World (1850); E.D.E.N. Southworth's The Hidden Hand (1854); Harriet Wilson's Our Nig (1859); and Louisa May Alcott's Little Women (1860)--include representations of girlhood in their texts, not only to comment on gender politics in the nineteenth-century, but also to advocate for the rights of actual American girls. To date, no other project connects the advocacy of contemporary Girls' Studies to the origins of girlhood advocacy in the nineteenth century. My project fills this gap, allowing scholars of contemporary Girls' and Women's Studies to trace the beginnings of girlhood politics, and enabling scholars of nineteenth-century culture and literature to access the contemporary framework of emerging gender studies research--Abstract.
Contents
Subject
Subject(s)
American fiction Women authors History and criticism.
Women authors, American 19th century.
Girls in literature.
Girls Books and reading United States History 19th century.
Girls United States History 19th century.
Popular culture United States History 19th century.
Women authors, American 19th century.
Girls in literature.
Girls Books and reading United States History 19th century.
Girls United States History 19th century.
Popular culture United States History 19th century.
Research Projects
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Dissertation
Description
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Department
English
Advisor
Gaul, Theresa Strouth