{"id":{"repo_id":"utc","oai_identifier":"oai:scholar.utc.edu:theses-1266"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/utc/oai:scholar.utc.edu:theses-1266","repository":{"repo_id":"utc","name":"University of Tennessee - Chattanooga","base_url":"https://scholar.utc.edu/do/oai/"},"display":{"title":"From pretending to supposing: redeeming the madwoman in Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess","abstract":"This thesis demonstrates how the emergent genre of girls’ literature in the Victorian period served to destabilize and challenge contemporary restrictive depictions of women. It revises the theory of Gilbert and Gubar in The Madwoman in the Attic, which posits that in nineteenth-century literature, women could only function as diseased, insane prisoners or else as angelic rulers of the domestic sphere; this thesis employs examples from Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess to prove that even during the height of Victorian literature, books written for and about young girls were already troubling the dichotomy set up by the literature of their mothers and older sisters. Imagination as it is shown in Burnett’s novel is a process that combines the chaotic irrationality of the \"madwoman’s\" insanity and the logic and agency characteristic of the \"angel in the home\"—it provides a middle ground where aspects of the Victorian \"good\" and \"wicked\" femininities can be reconciled.","abstract_html":"This thesis demonstrates how the emergent genre of girls’ literature in the Victorian period served to destabilize and challenge contemporary restrictive depictions of women. It revises the theory of Gilbert and Gubar in The Madwoman in the Attic, which posits that in nineteenth-century literature, women could only function as diseased, insane prisoners or else as angelic rulers of the domestic sphere; this thesis employs examples from Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess to prove that even during the height of Victorian literature, books written for and about young girls were already troubling the dichotomy set up by the literature of their mothers and older sisters. Imagination as it is shown in Burnett’s novel is a process that combines the chaotic irrationality of the "madwoman’s" insanity and the logic and agency characteristic of the "angel in the home"—it provides a middle ground where aspects of the Victorian "good" and "wicked" femininities can be reconciled.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["McPherson, Alexie"],"institution":"University of Tennessee at Chattanooga","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Sligh, Charles","North, Susan; Ventura, Abbie","College of Arts and Sciences"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":null,"date_issued":"","date_published":null,"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:46:11Z","subjects":["Children's stories, English -- History and criticism","Burnett, Frances Hodgson, -- 1849-1924 -- Criticism and interpretation"],"languages":["English","eng"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":["https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en"],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/132","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Sligh, Charles","North, Susan; Ventura, Abbie","College of Arts and Sciences"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["McPherson, Alexie"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2014-08-01T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["University of Tennessee at Chattanooga","Chattanooga (Tenn.)"]},{"key":"dc:relation","label":"Dc Relation","values":["Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Masters theses","Text"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Children's stories, English -- History and criticism","Burnett, Frances Hodgson, -- 1849-1924 -- Criticism and interpretation"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["English","eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/132"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Dept. of English","M. A.; A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts."]},{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["This thesis demonstrates how the emergent genre of girls’ literature in the Victorian period served to destabilize and challenge contemporary restrictive depictions of women. It revises the theory of Gilbert and Gubar in The Madwoman in the Attic, which posits that in nineteenth-century literature, women could only function as diseased, insane prisoners or else as angelic rulers of the domestic sphere; this thesis employs examples from Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess to prove that even during the height of Victorian literature, books written for and about young girls were already troubling the dichotomy set up by the literature of their mothers and older sisters. Imagination as it is shown in Burnett’s novel is a process that combines the chaotic irrationality of the \"madwoman’s\" insanity and the logic and agency characteristic of the \"angel in the home\"—it provides a middle ground where aspects of the Victorian \"good\" and \"wicked\" femininities can be reconciled."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["From pretending to supposing: redeeming the madwoman in Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Sligh, Charles","North, Susan; Ventura, Abbie","College of Arts and Sciences"],"dc:creator":["McPherson, Alexie"],"dc:date":["2014-08-01T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description":["Dept. of English","M. A.; A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts."],"dc:description.abstract":["This thesis demonstrates how the emergent genre of girls’ literature in the Victorian period served to destabilize and challenge contemporary restrictive depictions of women. It revises the theory of Gilbert and Gubar in The Madwoman in the Attic, which posits that in nineteenth-century literature, women could only function as diseased, insane prisoners or else as angelic rulers of the domestic sphere; this thesis employs examples from Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess to prove that even during the height of Victorian literature, books written for and about young girls were already troubling the dichotomy set up by the literature of their mothers and older sisters. Imagination as it is shown in Burnett’s novel is a process that combines the chaotic irrationality of the \"madwoman’s\" insanity and the logic and agency characteristic of the \"angel in the home\"—it provides a middle ground where aspects of the Victorian \"good\" and \"wicked\" femininities can be reconciled."],"dc:identifier":["https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/132"],"dc:language":["English","eng"],"dc:publisher":["University of Tennessee at Chattanooga","Chattanooga (Tenn.)"],"dc:relation":["Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations"],"dc:rights":["https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en"],"dc:subject":["Children's stories, English -- History and criticism","Burnett, Frances Hodgson, -- 1849-1924 -- Criticism and interpretation"],"dc:title":["From pretending to supposing: redeeming the madwoman in Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess"],"dc:type":["Masters theses","Text"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:46:11Z"}