Summary Of Literary Regionalism By Sarah Orne Jewett

The most interesting work that stood out to me in American Literature was by Hannah Webster Foster “The Coquette”. This was the best worked, studied because it is an excellent example of women’s literature written during a period of American History. The Coquette shows how women in the 18th century made a change on whom society define the role of a woman. The words of Lucy “to see a woman depart so far from the female character, as to assume the masculine habit and attitudes; and appear entirely indifferent, even to the externals of modesty, is truly disgusting, and ought not to be countenanced by our attendance, much less by our approbation” (Webster 907). Lucy views on women deviating from traditional gender norms are just as harsh as those of utter by men. “The Coquette” was a novel that was based on Elizabeth Whitman played through Eliza Wharton as a young, beautiful, smart, and prone to flirtatiousness. She was soon freed from an engagement to a man she did not love and then later died of an illness.

Realism, Naturalism, and Regionalism are just a few examples of the many styles of writing that exist. Each style of writing deals with a specific time period. Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat”, Henry James’s “Daisy Miller”, and Mary E Wilkins Freeman’s “The Revolt of Mother” are just a few examples of the literary works that represent these time periods. These literary works are perfect examples of the specific time periods each writing style was popular among certain authors. These stories allow readers to compare the modern times that we live in currently to the period these authors were in. They also allow the reader to branch out and be different.

A standout amongst the most fascinating advancements in nineteenth-century American writing school courses as of late has been the presentation of old well known books by ladies to the syllabus. Among works of this kind, E. D. E. N. Southworth 's The Hidden Hand is the book understudies appreciate the most.

Through all the readings that she had possessed she had become, what was the start of, an independent woman. The fact that she continued to read to further her knowledge and to learn more did not faze her that not many other women were doing as she was. At a young age she knew that “settling” with the roles of women during this time was a life that she had to choose but she also wanted more. She wanted to educate herself and that she did through the works of her favorite author’s books and poems.

Since its first appearance in the 1886 collection A White Heron and Other Stories, the short story A White Heron has become the most favorite and often anthologized of Sarah Orne Jewett. Like most of this regionalist writer's works, A White Heron was inspired by the people and landscapes in rural New England, where, as a little girl, she often accompanied her doctor father on his visiting patients. The story is about a nine-year-old girl who falls in love with a bird hunter but does not tell him the white heron's place because her love of nature is much greater. In this story, the author presents a conflict between femininity and masculinity by juxtaposing Sylvia, who has a peaceful life in country, to a hunter from town, which implies her

In American literature, women have been portrayed differently depending on the sex and race of the author. Henry James who wrote “Daisy Miller: A Study” (1878) characterized Daisy as a tramp who breaks expatriate social customs. When a male writes about a woman, she is sometimes portrayed as a troublemaker and often up to no good. On the other hand, in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” (1892), the narrator is trapped by domestic life. When a woman writes about women, they are usually victims of their society. James and Gilman each seem to display women differently because of their own sex, personal preferences, and experiences.

    I chose to compare and contrast two women authors from different literary time periods.  Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) as a representative of the Victorian age (1832-1901) and Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) as the spokeswoman for the Modernist (1914-1939) mindset.  Being women in historical time periods that did not embrace the talents and gifts of women; they share many of the same issues and themes throughout their works - however, it is the age in which they wrote that shaped their expressions of these themes.  Although they lived only decades apart their worlds were remarkably different - their voices were muted or amplified according to the beat of society's drum.

Female roles in society have often been minute. In Jewett’s “A White Heron” and Freeman’s “The Revolt of Mother”, Sylvia and Mother demonstrate feminine empowerment. These two prominent female protagonists overcome the male influence in their life and society. Both defy social expectations of women and the obstacles that come with it. The authors express this through their similar use of symbolism and alienation. Jewett and Freeman use different examples of poverty, the motivation of society, and speech in their stories.

In the two short stories, “Woman Hollering Creek” by Sandra Cisneros and “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, both use the theme of societal expectations and discrimination of women as the basis of their plots.

     The Scarlet Letter can easily be seen as an early feminist piece of work. Nathaniel Hawthorne created a story that exemplifies Hester as a strong female character living with her choices, whether they were good or bad, and also as the protagonist. He also presents the daughter of Hester, Pearl, as an intelligent female, especially for her age. He goes on to prove man as imperfect through both the characters of Dimmesdale and of Chillingworth. With the situation that all the characters face, Hawthorne establishes the female as the triumphant one, accomplishing something that, during Nathaniel Hawthorne’s time, authors did not attempt.

Every author, poet, playwright has a subtle message that they would like present to their audience. It may be a lifelong struggle that they have put into words, or a multiple page book that took a lifetime to write. A poet by the name of Anne Sexton sought out to challenge society’s views of women by writing “Her Kind”. A poet, a playwright, and an author of children’s books, Anne Sexton writes about the conflicts of a social outcast living in modern times. She voices the hardships she faces through three different speakers in her poem. At the end of the poem, the woman is not ashamed nor afraid of whom she is and is ready to die in peace. In Anne Sexton’s poem “Her Kind”, the main idea the speaker is depicting is the multiple stereotypes placed on a woman, by society. Sexton’s vivid use of imagery paints a picture of the witch, house wife, and mother cliché, while also implying the poem is autobiographical as Sexton went through her own personal struggles during her life.

Most people would be able to name at least two famous authors of the twentieth century. One of those authors that would be named is Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. Marjorie Rawlings showed an interest in writing at very young age. The first jobs she had as a young adult was as a columnist. There were many obstacles that she went through and personal sacrifices that were made to get her own name out in the writing world. Marjorie Rawlings’s had to learn to overcome the gender and social formalities of the twentieth century. However, Rawlings’s was not someone who followed the rules from the beginning. Rawlings’s pushed the idea that women could do more than what others think they should be doing. Also, she did anything and everything to get the best

Throughout American Literature, women have been depicted in many different ways. The portrayal of women in American Literature is often influenced by an author's personal experience or a frequent societal stereotype of women and their position. Often times, male authors interpret society’s views of women in a completely different nature than a female author would. While F. Scott Fitzgerald may represent his main female character as a victim in the 1920’s, Zora Neale Hurston portrays hers as a strong, free-spirited, and independent woman only a decade later in the 1930’s.

Throughout history, female artists have not been strangers to harsh criticism regarding their artistic works. Some female artists are fortunate to even receive such criticism; many have not achieved success in sharing their works with the world. In Virgina Woolf’s third chapter of her essay “A Room of One’s Own,” Woolf addresses the plight of the woman writer, specifically during the Elizabethan time period of England. Woolf helps the reader appreciate her view on how stifling and difficult this time period was for women and how what little creativity emerged would have been distorted in some way. Through a number of claims, examples and other literary techniques, Woolf is able to

Abstract: Eliza Haywood, writing in the early eighteenth century English literary and cultural space provided a new concept of womanhood and femininity through her amatory works. The amatory novella, a novelistic subgenre, popularized by the women writers of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century England, foregrounded excessive emotion and passion in contrast to the contemporary male writings which dealt with realism in both the theme and technique of representation. Eliza Haywood not only provided a counter tradition to the mainstream male tradition of writing realistic, matter-of-fact fictions through her sensational, erotic prose fictions but raised a strong antipatriarchal voice through the female protagonists of her novellas. As a writer she exploited the trauma and suffering that the female