Graduation Year
2017
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
English
Reader 1
Thomas Koenigs
Reader 2
Warren Liu
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
© 2016 Blair E. Hedigan
Abstract
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, such as economic stability and class mobility.
Recommended Citation
Hedigan, Blair, "Performativity and Domestic Fiction in Antebellum America: The Power Dynamics of Class and Gender Performance" (2017). Scripps Senior Theses. 900.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/900
Included in
Literature in English, North America Commons, Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Women's Studies Commons
