This thesis analyzes the 35-year-run of the Ladies' Repository, and Gatherings of the West, a monthly periodical distributed by the Methodist Episcopal Church from 1841-1876. This thesis will first look at the publication history of The Ladies' Repository to understand why this publication was financed by the church, what its readership looked like, and why it ceased publication in 1876 (or, rather, why the money ran out). Second, and the main thrust of my argument, is that this particular magazine decentralized the idea that private and public spheres could not be transgressed unless some rhetorical trickery was afoot. For The Repository women's agency is not understood in the confines of the domestic sphere, but through articles about female missionaries the domestic sphere was always considered to be doing public good. I argue that the articles in The Repository oriented women to an idea of western expansion that called on them to missionize or support itinerant husbands in order to see America manifest from sea to shining sea. Finally, while many narratives of westward expansion in America characterize the frontier, or any land outside the geographical borders, as masculine, I argue that The Ladies' Repository gives scholars a sketch of a feminine, yet still uncharted West. To do this, I connect this westward expansion to Methodist understanding of nature, natural power, and God's providence. Through this, while men might have done the conquering of the West, women domesticated this unruly, and seemingly unbounded space. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Religion in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Spring Semester 2018. / April 20, 2018. / Ladies' Repository, Methodist, missionaries, Nineteenth Century, popular literature, women's magazines / Includes bibliographical references. / Amanda Porterfield, Professor Directing Thesis; John Corrigan, Committee Member; Jamil Drake, Committee Member; Michael McVicar, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_654727 |
| Contributors | Iliff, Haley (author), Porterfield, Amanda, 1947- (professor directing thesis), Corrigan, John, 1952- (committee member), Drake, Jamil William (committee member), McVicar, Michael J. (committee member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Arts and Sciences (degree granting college), Department of Religion (degree granting departmentdgg) |
| Publisher | Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text, master thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (90 pages), computer, application/pdf |
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