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Performativity And Domestic Fiction In Antebellum America: The Power Dynamics Of Class And Gender Performance, Blair Hedigan
Performativity And Domestic Fiction In Antebellum America: The Power Dynamics Of Class And Gender Performance, Blair Hedigan
Scripps Senior Theses
This thesis analyzes the role of performativity within the domestic novel during antebellum America; specifically, the ways in which E.D.E.N. Southworth’s The Hidden Hand and Louisa May Alcott’s Behind a Mask subverted cultural and societal norms by exploring the performative nature of class and gender. Through their respective protagonists, the two authors sought to question the power dynamics of an overwhelmingly patriarchal society. By granting their protagonists agency through performance, Southworth and Alcott explored the ways in which women might alter existing power structures to reject the restrictions gender essentialism placed upon antebellum women, and to advocate for women’s rights, …