The American Dream and The Woman: Analyzing the Struggles of the 19th Century American Woman in Ruth Hall (original) (raw)
Resistance to Domesticity in Fanny Fern’s Ruth Hall: A Feminist Viewpoint
Theory and Practice in Language Studies
The status of women in society is often overlooked and defined only through the presence of men. This situation tends to exclude women from socio-cultural, economic, and political contributions to society, which can be reproduced in literary texts. In particular, Fanny Fern’s Ruth Hall (1855) reflects the miserable position of women in 19th century America and demonstrates that women must resist manhood’s power to achieve a certain ontological sense in life. Via a context-oriented technique, our analysis aims to explore the practical means through which Ruth, the protagonist of Fern’s Ruth Hall, resists domesticity to achieve self-realization and social freedom from feminist theoretical viewpoints. According to the analysis, Ruth resists domesticity through events, endurance, self-reliance, and in terms of language. Despite social standards, Fern’s representation of Ruth’s financial success highlights how women can surpass gender boundaries. Fern’s depiction of Ruth further demonstr...
Introduction: (Hi)stories of American Women: Writings and Re-writings
Transatlantica
After more than four decades of development in the United States and elsewhere, women's and gender history has become a recognized academic field, and continues to engage scholars and the general public in several interpretive debates on the status of women in American society (Dayton and Levenstein; Thébaud; Pfefferkorn). Such debates are fueled by contemporary social and cultural trends-particularly the crisis of democracy and the evolution of power relations in connection with the influence of social media, the persistent prevalence of race in politics, the redefinition of minorities and multiculturalism, or the renewed controversies over victimization and agency. In the first stages of its development, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the primary goal of women's history was to make women visible in a historical narrative dominated by and centered on white men. After the pioneering works of William Chafe, Gerda Lerner and Paula Giddins, the trend has continued to this day. 1 The titles of some publications are strikingly explicit about the issue of invisibility (Barnett; Browning; Frear; Sartain; Scott). The following stage, in the 1980s and 1990s, consisted in reexamining categories by taking into account the influence of social, economic, and political factors in the shaping of individual identities-with a growing emphasis on class and race. It was in this second stage that the redefinition of sex and race as constructs complicated the interpretive frame by insisting on the diversity of female experiences, warning against the pitfalls of essentialism (Janiewski; Spelman; Collins; Jones; Ruiz). From the 1990s on, scholars and commentators insisted on the importance of using a greater range of sources; focusing on different groups; and using a diversity of scales: local, regional, and global. 2 The key concepts that came to the fore in this process-such as agency, empowerment, and intersectionality-have become central to any discussion of women and gender in American history, the landmark publication in that respect being Kimberlé Crenshaw's 1989 article, "Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex" (Crenshaw; Nash).
"Ruth Hall" by Fanny Fern: an unconventional female Bildungsroman
"Ruth Hall" by Fanny Fern is different from other novels written by and addressed to women: its plot, protagonist, and style prove that Fern’s book is an unconventional female Bildungsroman. To prove this statement, this paper will compare Fern’s novel to the two most famous bestsellers of the period: "The Wide, Wide World" by Susan Warner and "The Lamplighter" by Maria Cummins.
Revue d'études américaines. American Studies Journal, 2022
“Blinded by the Sunbonnet: The Long Shadow of the Pioneer Myth on American Womanhood.” The presentation explored white womanhood in the United States in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and its impact on white feminists and activists. Paula Read presented the sunbonnet myth, the ideal pioneer woman on the frontier: a cheerful, civilized and civilizing woman, also known as the Madonna of the Prairies. Read insisted on the fact that in the United States the myth was created retroactively and passed on though cultural contents such as stories, novels or TV series, for example the famous Little House on the Prairie, that shaped childhood memories across the territory. She then underlined the necessity of de-centering the history of white women pioneers and of expanding the vantage points, something that still needs to be done.
Suffrage and Women’s Writing, 2020
Women's literary activity during the first two decades of the twentieth century, fuelled by the progressive spirit, served as a form of cultural lobbying through which they could articulate social and political problems and propose solutions. This article focuses on the struggle that enfranchised women by examining two long-forgotten suffrage novels, written in a period when grassroots activism, suffrage parades and house-to-house canvassing were a means of propaganda: Marietta Holley's Samantha on the Woman Question (1913) and Elia Peattie's The Precipice (1914). With her use of satire, Holley familiarizes her middle-class audience with women's suffrage and politics. By presenting the plight of different women in a vernacular style, Holley addresses the older generation of anti-suffragist women, illuminating how countless unfortunate women are oppressed by a political system that does not acknowledge their presence. On the other hand, in The Precipice, Elia Peattie appeals to the younger generation of New Women, portraying the life of a twentieth-century social reformer, who tries to balance her career as a municipal housekeeper with the traditional roles and values of her day. The article argues that both novels functioned as catalysts to bring about social change at a time when, on the federal level at least, women still could not vote or hold an elected office. Thus, even before women were enfranchised, these novels influenced the beliefs and opinions of female audiences, for whom reading fiction was a favourable pastime. Without marginalizing female protagonists or blatantly alienating readers by transgressing socially accepted gender norms, these authors were able to find a middle ground, successfully creating role models who try to change society from within. By rendering the New Woman unthreatening, they challenged the ideology of separate spheres and prepared the public for the great changes ahead. During the Progressive Era, a widespread concern over social justice unavoidably shaped American politics. Although progressive women played a prominent role in the regulatory policies enacted, they remained peripheral to the progressive movement as they had not attained their political rights-in particular, the right to vote. By virtue of their domestic roles as housekeepers and
This is not what being a woman means': female identity in American narratives from 1960 to 1970
2021
Imagine a world where half the population feels as if they 'don't exist.' A world where women are expected to be 'fluffy and feminine,' and always be 'the children's mommy, or the minister's wife,' but never themselves. A world that constantly asks, 'what is wrong with American women that they can't accept their role gracefully?' This is the world described by Betty Friedan in her book The Feminine Mystique, published in 1963. Considered by many a groundbreaking piece of writing, Friedan's study deals with what she terms 'the problem with no name'-a sense of malaise that leads to profound dissatisfaction. According to Friedan, this malaise affects most women, and its roots lie in the social expectation that to be feminine means to marry, have children, and become the 'perfect' housewife. Friedan investigates the lives of these women to uncover the limitations that a deeply patriarchal society places on them, and to suggest solutions that would help them achieve greater fulfilment. Yet, on a closer look Friedan's investigation reveals significant limitations: Friedan is almost exclusively concerned with the problems of white, middle class, suburban women whose lives denote a significant amount of social, political, and financial privilege. What about the unmarried city girls from modest backgrounds? What about the traditional Jewish mothers? Or the little Black girls? When there are so many different types of women, what does being a woman even mean? These questions serve as the backdrop to the five novels and one memoir that make up the core of this thesis: