Date of Graduation
7-2015
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy in English (PhD)
Degree Level
Graduate
Department
English
Advisor/Mentor
Booker, M. Keith
Committee Member
Adams, Charles H.
Second Committee Member
Marren, Susan M.
Keywords
Language; literature and linguistics; Social sciences; Children's literature; Class; Gender; Nineteeth-century american literature; Race
Abstract
Orphan iconography has always been deployed in American literature and culture, but nineteenth-century American literature, fiction in particular, abounds in orphans, both real and imaginary. The orphan’s amphibious nature is hailed and demonized as the epitome of individualism and unbridled freedom, and also as the location of society’s anxiety. This complicated and conflicted construction of orphans animates the Social and cultural realm in postbellum America, foregrounding issues of class, race, and gender.
Citation
Zeenat, A. (2015). The Spectacle of Orphanhood: Reimagining Orphans in Postbellum Fiction. Graduate Theses and Dissertations Retrieved from https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/1275
