This BA thesis will analyze the experience and the representation of womanhood in the Victorian America of the 19th century. After an initial introductory section on the social and cultural background of the time, gender inequality, and how women were viewed and included within society, I will move on to discuss the representation of these ideals in children's fiction, and how literature has been a tool for propagating them up to that time. I will recount how, through their writings, women authors of the 19th century began to educate new young generations of girls about emancipation and to fight for their rights. Then, by analyzing Louisa May Alcott's works "Eight Cousins" and its sequel ''Rose in Bloom", I will highlight the differences between old and new generations of women, how the former were anchored to the cult of domesticity and how the latter were starting to break away from those rigid canons that marked the entire century.

Experiencing womanhood in 19th-century America: Louisa May Alcott and the girls' novel

MOSCATO, MARIA CRISTINA
2022/2023

Abstract

This BA thesis will analyze the experience and the representation of womanhood in the Victorian America of the 19th century. After an initial introductory section on the social and cultural background of the time, gender inequality, and how women were viewed and included within society, I will move on to discuss the representation of these ideals in children's fiction, and how literature has been a tool for propagating them up to that time. I will recount how, through their writings, women authors of the 19th century began to educate new young generations of girls about emancipation and to fight for their rights. Then, by analyzing Louisa May Alcott's works "Eight Cousins" and its sequel ''Rose in Bloom", I will highlight the differences between old and new generations of women, how the former were anchored to the cult of domesticity and how the latter were starting to break away from those rigid canons that marked the entire century.
2022
Experiencing womanhood in 19th-century America: Louisa May Alcott and the girls' novel
Womanhood
Literature
Alcott
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12608/44179