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ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Constructing Womanhood: The Influence of Conduct Books on Gender Performance and Ideology of Womanhood in American Women's Novels, 1865-1914

Thorndike, Colleen F
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1428755452

Abstract Details

2015, PHD, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English.
For centuries, conduct books have doled out advice, established gender expectations, and maintained social codes of conduct. These books prove to be valuable resources for observing how womanhood was defined throughout the nineteenth century and for illuminating how gender roles were constructed and how the concept of proper behavior changed with the make up of society. Using these conduct texts alongside novels by Louisa May Alcott, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Kate Chopin, and Edith Wharton re-engages discussions of womanhood started by Nina Baym, Frances Cogan, and Barbara Welter and enlarges the discussion of these women writers and their portrayals of women. Examining these novelists in conjunction with conduct books forges connections between these conduct texts, novels, and authors that have not been fully examined and illuminates a subtext of social expectations and gender performance running through each of these novels. Each of these authors included characters in her novels that challenged codes of conduct. The texts in this dissertation explore the tension between the reality and the ideal of womanhood, while highlighting the gender performance required in the attempt to live up to the societal expectations of women. Each of these authors demonstrates how influential the social codes of conduct and societal expectations of women were throughout the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century.
Wesley Raabe (Advisor)
Robert Trogdon (Advisor)
Babacar M'Baye (Committee Member)
Stephane Booth (Committee Member)
165 p.
American Literature
American literature, conduct books, advice books, women writers, gender performance, womanhood

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Thorndike, C. F. (2015). Constructing Womanhood: The Influence of Conduct Books on Gender Performance and Ideology of Womanhood in American Women's Novels, 1865-1914 [Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1428755452

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Thorndike, Colleen. Constructing Womanhood: The Influence of Conduct Books on Gender Performance and Ideology of Womanhood in American Women's Novels, 1865-1914. 2015. Kent State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1428755452.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Thorndike, Colleen. "Constructing Womanhood: The Influence of Conduct Books on Gender Performance and Ideology of Womanhood in American Women's Novels, 1865-1914." Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1428755452

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

kent1428755452
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© 2015, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Kent State University and OhioLINK.