The Real and the Ideal: Margaret Junkin Preston and Woman's Increasing Role in the Culture of the South, 1820--1897

"This study uses the life of Margaret Junkin Preston to examine changes in woman's place in the South during the nineteenth century. In particular, it analyzes women's increasing participation in the cultural life of the South. It concludes that Confederate nationalism provided southern women with the opportunity to expand their place during the Civil War, and that these women maintained their new boundaries after defeat. Preston, who spent the first twenty-eight years of her life in the North, became the sister-in-law of ""Stonewall"" Jackson and the good friend of Paul Hamilton Hayne. Most importantly, she developed into one of the best-known southern writers of the nineteenth century. She did so by redefining both the concept of womanhood and the purpose of her writing. Preston concluded that women could be accepted as publishing authors in the South only if they continued to perform their traditional household duties, and if their writing served the public. This combination of the ""real"" and the ""ideal"" was both liberating and oppressive, but it nevertheless represented an expansion of southern woman's place."

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

History

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Klein, Stacey Jean

Contributors dc:contributor

• Johannsen, Robert W.

• Women's Studies

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI9971113

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/84760