Archetypes, Rhetoric, and the American Reader: Explaining the Success of Susanna Rowson's Charlotte Temple

Susanna Rowson's Charlotte Temple (1791) is America's first best selling novel, yet it receives little attention. Critics tend to dismiss the novel as unimportant, but this thesis argues that it does merit further study as an expression of our country's early culture, primarily of the split between the opposing English and American elements in that culture. The characters reflect the psychological stresses which accompany such a conflict. Analyses of the text written from a Jungian psychological point of view and from a classical rhetorical point of view reveal more clearly the role that Charlotte Temple played in forming America's concept of itself. In addition, the novel, written for women by a woman, embodies what critics now refer to as nascent feminism, that is, feminism presented as a subtext within the main text.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts in English

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Year

1995

Author dc:creator

• Lemons, Sally Ann

Contributors dc:contributor

• William Burling

• English Language and Literature

Statement dc:rights

• © Sally Ann Lemons

Repository record dc:identifier

https://bearworks.missouristate.edu/theses/287

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:bearworks.missouristate.edu:theses-1288