Silencing and silenced women in Edith Wharton's non-ghost short stories.

During a writing career spanning more than fifty years (1885 to 1937), Edith Wharton portrayed American women weathering a tremendous sea change in society's expectations of them. In the 1960s the unsealing of Wharton's personal papers encouraged scholars to assign new value to Wharton's short fiction. Focusing on the ghost stories, feminist critics have begun to read Wharton's frequent themes of voiceless females as attempts to provide a voice for silenced women authors. Yet the fear of being silenced manifests itself throughout Wharton's writings, and I believe the non-ghost short stories merit equal study. Wharton's female characters represent the woman artist unable to escape patriarchy, a situation reflective of Wharton's own life. For Wharton, writing brings power, yet it estranges her from her culturally-constructed "female" self. In "The Letters," "Autres Temps...", and "Roman Fever," Wharton expresses rebellion that patriarchy has, until very recently, heard only as silence.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Grantor

Baylor University.

Year dc:date.issued

1997

Author dc:creator

• Ruiz, Kezia S.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Losey, Jay Brian.

• Wharton, Edith, 1862-1937 -- Criticism and interpretation.
• Women and literature.

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/2104/14381

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:baylor-ir.tdl.org:2104/14381