Whispers in the Dark: The Fiction of Louisa May AlcottUniversity of Tennessee Press, 1993 - 228 pages "For decades readers accepted Louisa May Alcott's sentimental portrayal of the domestic world of women and children as evidence of her wholehearted support of the conservative ideologies of Victorian America. The women's movement of the 1970s sparked a reexamination of Alcott's writings, revealing a more radical vein but failing to establish the extent to which this impulse was realized." "In an effort to clarify Alcott's intent, Elizabeth Keyser examines representative works: the sensation stories "A Whisper in the Dark," "A Marble Woman," and "Behind a Mask"; the children's classics Little Women, Little Men, and Jo's Boys; and the novels for adults Moods, Work, and Diana and Persis. Keyser discerns in all three genres self-portraits or metafictions that convey what it meant to be a Victorian woman writer. Alcott's wealth of allusion to other writers, such as Charlotte Bronte, Margaret Fuller, and, especially, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and of recurring motifs such as textiles, texts, and theatricals reveals her consistent subversion of conventional values for women." "Keyser shows that beneath the mildly progressive feminism of her domestic and children's fiction lurks the more radical feminism of the Gothic thrillers. In some works Alcott symbolically conveys her vision of a feminist future in which men and women fulfill their androgynous potential and live in a harmonious state of equality. But in her most sustained critique of gender relations, the Little Women trilogy, Alcott betrays grave misgivings about the possibility of such a future."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 35
Page 34
... points about the nature of patriarchy . Yorke's behavior in regard to Cecil , behavior that he believes to be ... point to women's dependent status and the ensuing need to conceal their natural impulses . The Psyche that Yorke molds ...
... points about the nature of patriarchy . Yorke's behavior in regard to Cecil , behavior that he believes to be ... point to women's dependent status and the ensuing need to conceal their natural impulses . The Psyche that Yorke molds ...
Page 136
... points — that women are regarded as angels and relegated to the sidelines of the game of life , that women have been conditioned to regard their exclusion as " fair " and their participation as “ interference , ” that men , in excluding ...
... points — that women are regarded as angels and relegated to the sidelines of the game of life , that women have been conditioned to regard their exclusion as " fair " and their participation as “ interference , ” that men , in excluding ...
Page 196
... points out in her introduction , Faith Dane appeared earlier as the heroine of Alcott's Civil War story " My Contraband " ( 1863 ) . 11. In the 1882 version Moor has composed a song entitled “ Waiting ” ( 228 ) . 12. See Stern's ...
... points out in her introduction , Faith Dane appeared earlier as the heroine of Alcott's Civil War story " My Contraband " ( 1863 ) . 11. In the 1882 version Moor has composed a song entitled “ Waiting ” ( 228 ) . 12. See Stern's ...
Contents
A Whisper in the Dark | 3 |
Moods | 14 |
The Seduction of Daughters or The Sins of | 32 |
Copyright | |
10 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
actress ambition Amy's artist Aunt Fiction Aunt Pen beautiful becomes Bess Beth Blithedale Romance career Cecil chapter child Christie Christie's Coventry Cynthy Daisy daughter David death Diana and Persis domestic fiction edition experience Fancy Fancy's Friend father feel Felix female feminine feminist finally Gerald Germain girls Gladys Gladys's happy Hawthorne's Helwyze Helwyze's hero heroine husband Jane Eyre Jean Muir Jean's Jo's Boys Judith Fetterley later Laurie Laurie's letter Little Women Lorelei Louisa May Alcott male Marble Woman Margaret Fuller Marmee Marmee's marriage marry masculine Mask Meg's Modern Mephistopheles Moods Moor moral mother narrator nature novel Olivia passion patriarchal Percy Percy's Philip Fletcher play Plumfield Professor Bhaer Psyche Psyche's role Scarlet Letter scene seems sensation fiction sensation story sexual sisters sphere Stafford subversive suggests Sybil Sylvia tableaux vivants tells Uncle Fact Vivien Warwick Whisper womanhood writing Yorke Yorke's Zenobia