Committee Chair

Shaheen, Aaron D.

Committee Member

Stuart, Christopher J.; Jones, Rebecca

Department

Dept. of English

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Abstract

Recent scholarship addresses a deeper significance to Jewett‟s female characters than was previously attributed in canonical history. Jewett imbues her women with complexity, but intentionally avoids portraying her females as disproportionately heroic. Indeed, a pervading recurrence of abortions and otherwise lost children among the predominately female community of Dunnet Landing creates a framework of death by which to interpret the actions and motivations of Jewett‟s characters. My thesis explores the larger metaphor Jewett establishes by juxtaposing the literal abortions of her female characters and the figurative abortion of Dunnet Landing‟s future; moreover, the aborted futures of Jewett‟s female characters mirror the decay of the town itself which has not recovered from the loss of its once-vibrant shipping economy. Jewett‟s intermingling of these two themes unveils a sense of lost innocence which is cemented by the historical context of nostalgia for something lost that was setting in all over the country during Jewett‟s era.

Degree

M. A.; A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts.

Date

12-2011

Name

Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909 -- Criticism and interpretation

Discipline

English Language and Literature

Document Type

Masters theses

DCMI Type

Text

Extent

v, 70 leaves

Language

English

Rights

https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/

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