"Representation and the Modern Female Subject" examines the socio-cultural work of the fictional woman painter in novels by women authors writing in or about the United States between
the years 1870-1930. I focus on representations of women painters to explore the shift that occurs when women take control of their self-images. It is my contention that nineteenth- and
early-twentieth-century American women writers employ the self-reflexive figure of the painter heroine to promote an ideological and iconological awareness of the discursive and visual
natures of gender construction. The second order act of gender- and self-making produced by the woman author writing the woman painter, who in turn produces ekphrastically rendered images,
foregrounds the ways that gender is articulated in art, literature, and the popular media. These self-reflexive representations, therefore, anticipate questions raised by constructivists
about how gender ideologies are produced, by whom, and to what effect. In this way, authors such as Lillie Devereux Blake, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Kate Chopin, Julia Magruder, Winnifred
Eaton, and Jessie Fauset deconstruct hegemonic representations of womanhood or femininity, from the True Woman to the Gibson Girl, to enable a plurality of divergent, sometimes paradoxical,
femininities. Implicitly, then, these authors suggest that gender is constructed and negotiated through language and image and, crucially, that women must take an active part in those
processes if they are to obtain autonomy. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2014. / October 27, 2014. / Includes bibliographical references. / Leigh Edwards, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Paul Outka, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Karen Bearor, University Representative; Andrew
Epstein, Committee Member; Dennis Moore, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_253408 |
| Contributors | Moffitt, Jennifer Leigh (authoraut), Edwards, Leigh H., 1970- (professor co-directing dissertation), Outka, Paul (professor co-directing dissertation), Bearor, Karen A. (Karen Anne), 1950- (university representative), Epstein, Andrew, 1969- (committee member), Moore, Dennis (committee member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Arts and Sciences (degree granting college), Department of English (degree granting department) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource (188 pages), computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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