Maternal Realism: Public Mothering in the Work of Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins

"This project explores the place of women writers generally excluded from studies of literary realism. Writing in response to the same cultural and economic changes taking place in America as more conventional realists, Phelps, Gilman, and Hopkins retain elements of popular domestic fiction to create a new form: maternal realism. Their fictions conceive of an America in need of motherly guidance, offering a maternal value system and the practice of public mothering as a viable alternative to the nation's increasingly individualistic and capitalistic ethos. Challenging the Howellsian notion that realism must portray ""the world of men's activities,"" these writers deploy the feminine, maternal ethic of domestic fiction as a means of rewriting the codes of realism and valorizing women's experiences."

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Bergman, Jill Annette

Contributors dc:contributor

• Baym, Nina

• Women's Studies

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI9952965

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/81503