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Author Fedorko, Kathy A., 1947-

Title Gender and the Gothic in the fiction of Edith Wharton / Kathy A. Fedorko
Published Tuscaloosa : University of Alabama Press, ©1995

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Description 1 online resource (xvii, 198 pages)
Contents 1. The Gothic Text: Life and Art -- 2. Fearing the Feminine -- 3. Confronting the Limits of Reason -- 4. Reclaiming the Feminine -- 5. Surviving the Abyss and Revising Gender Roles
Summary Using feminist archetypal theory and theory of the female Gothic, Fedorko shows how, in sixteen short stories and six major novels written during four distinct periods of her life, Wharton adopts and adapts Gothic elements as a way to explore the nature of feminine and masculine ways of knowing and being and to dramatize the tension between them. A distinction in her use of the form is that she has both women and men engage in a process of individuation during which they confront the abyss, the threatening and disorienting feminine/maternal. Wharton deconstructs traditional Gothic villains and victims by encouraging the reader to identify with those characters who are willing to assimilate this confrontation with the feminine/maternal into their sense of themselves as women and men. In the novels with Gothic texts Wharton draws multiple parallels between male and female protagonists, indicating the commonalities between women and men and the potential for a fe/male self
Eventually, in her last completed novel and her last short story, Wharton imagines human beings who are comfortable with both gender selves. Fedorko's study challenges existing views of the nature of Wharton's realism as well as the nature and importance of her fiction that defies that categorization. It provides a provocative approach to Wharton's handling of and response to gender and complicates current assumptions about her response to the feminine and the maternal
Analysis English fiction
United States
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 181-188) and index
Notes Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL
digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL
Print version record
Subject Wharton, Edith, 1862-1937 -- Criticism and interpretation
SUBJECT Wharton, Edith, 1862-1937 fast
Wharton, Edith 1862-1937 gnd
Wharton, Edith, (1862-1937) -- Critique et interprétation. ram
Wharton, Edith. swd
Subject Psychological fiction, American -- History and criticism
Women and literature -- United States -- History
Gothic fiction (Literary genre), American -- History and criticism
Masculinity in literature.
Femininity in literature.
Man-woman relationships in literature.
Gender identity in literature.
Sex role in literature.
Gothic fiction (Literary genre) -- United States
LITERARY CRITICISM -- American -- General.
Gothic fiction (Literary genre)
Femininity in literature
Gender identity in literature
Gothic fiction (Literary genre), American
Man-woman relationships in literature
Masculinity in literature
Psychological fiction, American
Sex role in literature
Women and literature
Geschlechterrolle Motiv
Geschlechterrolle
Schauerliteratur
Roman
Gothic novel.
Sekseverschillen.
Verenigde Staten.
Letterkunde.
Masculinité (psychologie) -- Dans la littérature.
Féminité (psychologie) dans la littérature.
Femmes et littérature -- États-Unis -- Histoire.
Sexisme -- Dans la littérature.
Roman gothique -- États-Unis.
Relations hommes femmes dans la litterature.
Hommes -- Psychologie -- Dans la littérature.
Femmes -- Psychologie -- Dans la littérature.
United States
Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc.
History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780817391843
0817391843