Multiple, misaligned subjectivities : how representative twentieth century authors resolve the tension between American individualism and femininity.

Many American women in the twentieth century experienced themselves within a cross-pressured social reality formed by the confluence of American individualism and a socially constructed femininity, and the claim of this project is that this conflicted experience can be found throughout novels written by twentieth century American women. Individualism and femininity are, for the purposes of this analysis, treated as modes of self and other interpretation, as described by Charles Taylor, and embedded in what Michel Foucault has called "regimes of truth," understood to be the social heritage of language, institutions, and human lives in a particular time and place. This project considers the conflicted experience of female protagonists in the novels of four American authors whose works span the twentieth century: Willa Cather (Song of the Lark and My Antonia), Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz), Shirley Jackson (The Sundial, Hill House, and We Always Lived in a Castle) and Marilynne Robinson (Housekeeping and Lila). The analysis examines how the characters experience the conflict, how it arises, and how they resolve the conflict, if, in fact, they can. Each author portrays the character's conflict between these prominent regimes of truth using the language and institutions which form the structure on which the regimes are built. In each case, unless the conflict between individualism and femininity is resolved, the character caught in the conflict remains, what is called here, "a center who is not one," or one who lives in or is a subject to both regimes. The tension of this condition is framed and resolved in unique ways by each author, depending on historical, social and environmental circumstances, but for these authors, the resolution of a shared subjectivity, drawing from both individualism and femininity, proves hard to achieve.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Grantor

Baylor University.

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Johnson, Lois J., 1974-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Ferretter, Luke, 1970-

• Individualism.
• Femininity.
• Feminism.
• Subjects.
• Taylor, Charles.
• Foucault, Michel, 1926-1984.
• Willa Cather.
• Fitzgerald, Zelda, 1900-1948.
• Jackson, Shirley, 1916-1965.
• Robinson, Marilynne.

Statement dc:rights

• Baylor University works are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. Contact libraryquestions@baylor.edu for inquiries about permission.

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/2104/12901

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:baylor-ir.tdl.org:2104/12901