Bringing Lippard Back: Biblical Allusions, Narrative Structure, and the Treatment of Women in George Lippard's The Quaker City

George Lippard, a name scarcely recognized in today's American literature classrooms, was the author of the most popular American novel prior to the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852 - The Quaker City; or, the Monks of Monk Hall. Despite producing such a popular and risqué novel, Lippard and his work have been curiously absent from the American literary and historical canon. In this paper I have chosen to focus on three aspects of the novel that I believe to be important for analysis - Biblical parallels, narrative structure, and female characters. Lippard uses the narrative structure and plot to incite curiosity in his readers and to appeal to audiences' instincts of sexual curiosity, pleasure in revenge, and the punishment of "evil." I will explain how Lippard uses two of the themes to reflect major issues of the time period and one as a metaphor for the plot of the novel.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Department dc:contributor.department

English

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2010

Author dc:creator

• Lauzon, Autumn Rhea

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Sorrentino, Paul M.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Stahl, John D.
• Metz, Nancy Aycock

• Sodom
• seduction
• narrative
• Philadelphia
• Quaker City
• George Lippard

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Dc Identifier Other

etd-05182010-125907

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/76777