This dissertation explores feminist strategies in three American women's writings from the twentieth Century. Specifically, the language of dance and the movement of women's bodies will be examined as the site of feminist resistance against the male, Western literary canon as well as a method to liberate the woman's body from cultural, political and social oppression. Dance, and writing the female dancing body, it will be argued, offers a symbolic language for insurgency and a counterhegemonic system for women writers to subvert and contest existing literary traditions which privilege male writers. The importance for studying dance in women's writings as feminist theory is argued as a method in which to further the feminist theory project. Each chapter begins with a brief biographical sketch of the author and the historical overview (i.e. publication, reception, criticism) of the specific novel examined. Existing feminist literary theory will be reviewed so that the dancing female body can be further explored in context. In order to better understand the importance of writing the female dancing body, three novels from the early twentieth century were chosen due to the importance of the literary, social and dance periods in which they were written, as well as their relationship to one another as part of the broader, female, American literary canon. Chapter One provides a literature review of selected feminist theories used throughout the dissertation as well as brief introductions to dance theories and techniques Chapter Two examines the authors and their respective novels within the framework of the literary and dance canons. Chapter Three focuses on Edith Wharton's novel, Twilight Sleep. Chapter Four examines Jessie Redmon Fauset's There is Confusion, and Chapter Five explores Zelda Fitzgerald's Save Me the Waltz. / A Dissertation submitted to the Program in Interdisciplinary Humanities in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2011. / February 14, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references. / Raymond R. Fleming, Professor Directing Dissertation; David Johnson, University Representative; Patricia Henry Young, Committee Member; Jerrilyn McGregory, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_253282 |
| Contributors | Miller, Alix Patricia (authoraut), Fleming, Raymond R. (professor directing dissertation), Johnson, David (university representative), Young, Patricia Henry (committee member), McGregory, Jerrilyn (committee member), Program in Interdisciplinary Humanities (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| 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, computer, application/pdf |
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