{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/21706"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/21706","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Reconcilable differences: Double proposals and the renegotiation of marriage in American women's fiction, 1850-1890","abstract":"Item marked as restricted to the 'UIUC Users [automated]' Group (id=2) by Howard Ding (hding2@illinois.edu) on 2011-05-07T14:52:39Z Item is restricted indefinitely.","abstract_html":"Item marked as restricted to the 'UIUC Users [automated]' Group (id=2) by Howard Ding (hding2@illinois.edu) on 2011-05-07T14:52:39Z Item is restricted indefinitely.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Tracey, Karen Kaiser"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"English","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Baym, Nina"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2011,"date_issued":"2011-05-07T13:16:43Z","date_published":"2011-05-07T13:16:43Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:18Z","subjects":["Women's Studies","Literature, American"],"languages":["eng"],"rights":["Copyright 1994 Tracey, Karen Kaiser"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["AAI9512575","(UMI)AAI9512575"],"render_values":[{"text":"AAI9512575","href":null,"code":true},{"text":"(UMI)AAI9512575","href":null,"code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/21706","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Baym, Nina"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Tracey, Karen Kaiser"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2011-05-07T13:16:43Z","10000-01-01","1994"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["English"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Women's Studies","Literature, American"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 1994 Tracey, Karen Kaiser"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["AAI9512575","(UMI)AAI9512575","http://hdl.handle.net/2142/21706"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Item marked as restricted to the 'UIUC Users [automated]' Group (id=2) by Howard Ding (hding2@illinois.edu) on 2011-05-07T14:52:39Z Item is restricted indefinitely.","Restriction data tranferred 2014-07-01T11:24:16-05:00 Original Data Group with Access UIUC Users [automated] Release Date: none Reason: ETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permission","ETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permission","U of I Only","Double proposals thread through nineteenth-century novels, tying American to British writers, and southern to northern novelists, creating a distinctive tradition within fiction by women that demonstrates how popular novels may have challenged the very norms courtship plots are often thought to reproduce. In the double-proposal plot, which is derived from British models including Jane Eyre and Aurora Leigh, one suitor proposes to the heroine twice; she rejects him the first time, and accepts him the second time. The novels in this study are analyzed through two distinctive structural elements created by the doubled proposal. First, the two proposed marriages, the first rejected and the second accepted, are contrasted to evaluate how the marriage was renegotiated between the two proposals. Second, the opened space between proposals, in which the heroine directs her plot beyond the proposal scene which might have ended it, is analyzed as an alternative path to courtship. The double-proposal tradition created by British and American novelists tracks cultural shifts occurring in how love and marriage were conceptualized. Seen through the horizon of expectations reconstructed with the help of social history, each of the novels advocates more companionate and egalitarian marriages. They also advocate more autonomy for women outside of marriage, either within a family or in a career setting. The American novelists included in this study, each of whom wrote at least two double-proposal novels, are Caroline Lee Hentz, Augusta Evans (Wilson), Laura Curtis Bullard, E.D.E.N. Southworth, and Elizabeth Stuart Phelps.","Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-07T13:16:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license.txt: 4922 bytes, checksum: 910b249b4beec47e7ab768910c8f966f (MD5) 9512575.pdf: 12192815 bytes, checksum: 1f2c745dc06a6895cf0f51f2289c252e (MD5) Previous issue date: 1994"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Reconcilable differences: Double proposals and the renegotiation of marriage in American women's fiction, 1850-1890"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Baym, Nina"],"dc:creator":["Tracey, Karen Kaiser"],"dc:date":["2011-05-07T13:16:43Z","10000-01-01","1994"],"dc:description":["Item marked as restricted to the 'UIUC Users [automated]' Group (id=2) by Howard Ding (hding2@illinois.edu) on 2011-05-07T14:52:39Z Item is restricted indefinitely.","Restriction data tranferred 2014-07-01T11:24:16-05:00 Original Data Group with Access UIUC Users [automated] Release Date: none Reason: ETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permission","ETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permission","U of I Only","Double proposals thread through nineteenth-century novels, tying American to British writers, and southern to northern novelists, creating a distinctive tradition within fiction by women that demonstrates how popular novels may have challenged the very norms courtship plots are often thought to reproduce. In the double-proposal plot, which is derived from British models including Jane Eyre and Aurora Leigh, one suitor proposes to the heroine twice; she rejects him the first time, and accepts him the second time. The novels in this study are analyzed through two distinctive structural elements created by the doubled proposal. First, the two proposed marriages, the first rejected and the second accepted, are contrasted to evaluate how the marriage was renegotiated between the two proposals. Second, the opened space between proposals, in which the heroine directs her plot beyond the proposal scene which might have ended it, is analyzed as an alternative path to courtship. The double-proposal tradition created by British and American novelists tracks cultural shifts occurring in how love and marriage were conceptualized. Seen through the horizon of expectations reconstructed with the help of social history, each of the novels advocates more companionate and egalitarian marriages. They also advocate more autonomy for women outside of marriage, either within a family or in a career setting. The American novelists included in this study, each of whom wrote at least two double-proposal novels, are Caroline Lee Hentz, Augusta Evans (Wilson), Laura Curtis Bullard, E.D.E.N. Southworth, and Elizabeth Stuart Phelps.","Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-07T13:16:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license.txt: 4922 bytes, checksum: 910b249b4beec47e7ab768910c8f966f (MD5) 9512575.pdf: 12192815 bytes, checksum: 1f2c745dc06a6895cf0f51f2289c252e (MD5) Previous issue date: 1994"],"dc:identifier":["AAI9512575","(UMI)AAI9512575","http://hdl.handle.net/2142/21706"],"dc:language":["eng"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 1994 Tracey, Karen Kaiser"],"dc:subject":["Women's Studies","Literature, American"],"dc:title":["Reconcilable differences: Double proposals and the renegotiation of marriage in American women's fiction, 1850-1890"],"dc:type":["text"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["English"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph.D."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:18Z"}