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Pioneers, Passionate Ladies, and Private Eyes
Despite efforts of contemporary reformers to curb the availability of dime novels, series books, and paperbacks, Pioneers, Passionate Ladies, and Private Eyes reveals how many readers used them as means of resistance and how fictional characters became models for self-empowerment. These literary genres, whose value has long been underestimated, provide fascinating insight into the formation of American popular culture and identity. Through these mass-produced, widely read books, Deadwood Dick, Old Sleuth, and Jessie James became popular heroes that fed the public’s imagination for the last western frontier, detective tales, and the myth of the outlaw. Women, particularly those who were poo...
The Clubwomen's Daughters
The author provides an interdisciplinary cultural study of the evolution of Progressive-era girls' peer groups, their representation in popular girls' fiction, and the influence of these communities, both real and fictional, upon young women's lives during the years leading up to the Second World War. The writers featured in this volume were the first generation of New Women, whose ability to enter traditionally male spaces such as the college campus, the playing field, the wilderness, and the office was facilitated by their membership in women's clubs, political and religious organizations, and athletic teams. Eager to promote the idea that same-sex group activities would lead to female emp...
Little House, Long Shadow
Beyond their status as classic children’s stories, Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books play a significant role in American culture that most people cannot begin to appreciate. Millions of children have sampled the books in school; played out the roles of Laura and Mary; or visited Wilder homesites with their parents, who may be fans themselves. Yet, as Anita Clair Fellman shows, there is even more to this magical series with its clear emotional appeal: a covert political message that made many readers comfortable with the resurgence of conservatism in the Reagan years and beyond. In Little House, Long Shadow, a leading Wilder scholar offers a fresh interpretation of the Little Hous...
Nancy Drew and Her Sister Sleuths
"This collection of essays focuses on the girl sleuth, made famous by Nancy Drew but also characterized by other detectives like Cherry Ames, Trixie Belden, Linda Carlton, and, in today's world, by Veronica Mars and Hermione Granger. Solving mysteries is what each of the essayists strives to do, examining the conundrums these sleuths have left in their wake"--Provided by publisher.
Exploring Culturally Diverse Literature for Children and Adolescents
This collection of original essays concentrates on the meaning of cultural aesthetics in children's and adolescent literature and uniquely tackles the particular issues teachers face today. Discusses beginning literary patterns of a particular group, stereotypic representations of American cultures, imagery in American adolescent and children's literature, and issues of literary inclusion. Theory and practice come together throughout the three sections of the text.
American Children's Literature and the Construction of Childhood
Of the many ways cultures have to socialize the young, western cultures have relied heavily on books to transmit certain social values and to cast aspersions on others. In her new study, American Children's Literature and the Construction of Childhood, author Gail S. Murray argues that the meaning of childhood is socially constructed and that its meaning has changed over time. Of course, "society" has never spoken with one voice but in almost every era, a dominant culture has prevailed. Books written for children reveal this dominant culture, reflect its behavioral standard, and reinforce its expectations. Covering the entire history of American children's literature, from The New England Primer to the works of authors like Dr. Seuss and Maurice Sendak, Murray explores the messages behind the stories, and what these messages reveal about the society that conveyed them.
The Lesbian Menace
"Electroshock. Hysterectomy. Lobotomy. These are only three of the many "cures" to which lesbians have been subjected in this century. How does a society develop such a profound aversion to a particular minority? In what ways do images in the popular media perpetuate cultural stereotypes about lesbians, and to what extent have lesbians been able to subvert and revise those images? This book addresses these and other questions by examining how lesbianism has been represented in American popular culture in the twentieth century and how conflicting ideologies have shaped lesbian experiences and identity." --Book Jacket.
The Modern Age
The Modern Age examines the discourses that have come to characterize adolescence and argues that commonplace views of adolescents as impulsive, conflicted, and rebellious are constructions inspired by broader cultural anxieties that characterized American society in early-twentieth-century America. The idea of adolescence, argues Kent Baxter, came into being because it fulfilled specific historical and cultural needs: to define a quickly expanding segment of the population, and to express concerns associated with the movement into a new era. Adolescence—a term that had little currency before 1900 and made a sudden and pronounced appearance in a wide variety of discourses thereafter—is a...
Rediscovering Nancy Drew
This lively collaboration of essays by and interviews with mystery writers, collectors, publishers, librarians, scholars, journalists, and fans presents a spirited, informative study of the history, development, and cultural influence of the youth-fiction series.
