This study is a content analysis of ten chick lit books, a genre of women’s fiction. Books were analyzed for five postfeminist characteristics as defined by Susan Faludi’s backlash theory, outlined in Backlash: The Undeclared War Against Women and in further research on popular culture’s notions of womanhood: 1) negative reaction to second wave feminism, 2) focus on the individual instead of a collective sisterhood, 3) desire for more traditional femininity through domesticity, consumerism, romance, and motherhood, 4) female identity crisis causing fears of a man shortage, a loudly ticking biological clock, and career burnout, and 5) feelings of anxiety over ability to make the correct future decisions. Analysis has found that chick lit does generally reinforce the notions of postfeminism/backlash, however the characters displayed anxiety over how to incorporate feminine paths into their lives and generally disregard motherhood.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UNC_CH/oai:etd.ils.unc.edu:1901/349 |
| Date | 2006 November 1900 |
| Creators | Michele M. Glasburgh |
| Contributors | Brian Sturm |
| Publisher | School of Information and Library Science |
| Source Sets | University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Theses and Dissertations |
| Format | application/pdf, 266525 bytes, application/pdf |
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