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Cruel Sorority, Or, Feminizing Enjoyment In American Romance, Carina Dionne Pasquesi

Dissertations

"Cruel Sorority, or, Feminizing Enjoyment in American Romance" analyzes the often-overlooked anti-social figures and affects found on the margins of American Romanticism. Symptomatically registering dissatisfaction and rage at the foreclosure of democratic possibility and public life, these feminized figures represent violent reactions against the dominant disciplinary institutions (e.g. marriage, motherhood, domesticity, slavery) that impoverish their lives. In keeping with the rich imaginative possibilities within the romance genre but often exceeding and redefining these conventions, these figures break with the reformist/inclusive logic that pervades works of the period. This project participates in recent critical discussions in American studies that deal with …