Engendering Regions in Contemporary Novels of Appalachia and the U.S. Southwest Open Access
LaGrotteria, Angela (2012)
Published
Abstract
Abstract
Engendering Regions in Contemporary Novels of Appalachia and the
U.S. Southwest
"Engendering Regions" offers a series of literary analyses of
20th/21st-Century American Literature that trace the development of
women's individual and communal identities in the U.S., focusing on
representations of Appalachia and the Southwest in contemporary
novels. Regionalism has been crucial to the study of American
Literature as a field, but
feminist theoretical approaches to region have been neglected.
Addressing this gap, my project explores how women protagonists
created by Ann Pancake, Toni Morrison, Ana Castillo, Joan Didion,
Ann Patchett, and Barbara Kingsolver problematize long
dominant
distinctions between essentialism and social construction by
accepting while challenging both. Juxtaposing regions as sites of
origin and relocation, I show how these novelists blur
essentialist-constructionist theoretical boundaries by portraying
representations of
region as simultaneously homogenous and heterogeneous spaces.
Chapter One theorizes in detail concepts of region, gender,
intersectionality, performativity, identity, and community. Before
exploring the mobility of region and gender between Appalachia and
the Southwest, Chapters Two and
Three highlight ways in which regionally gendered identities take
shape in characters' regions of origin. Chapter Two pairs Pancake's
Strange as This Weather Has Been and Morrison's Sula
because in both novels weather metaphors and the implementation
of
weather as a prominent plot device guide readers to (re)consider
how region, gender, and various vectors of identity intersect
within Appalachian communities. Comparing Castillo's So Far from
God with Didion's Play It as It Lays, Chapter Three
examines
how regionally gendered identities are influenced by Southwestern
topography and climate and focuses on the roles spirituality and
race play. The fourth chapter couples Patchett's The Patron
Saint of Liars and Kingsolver's The Bean Trees to
explore how
regionally gendered identities, as inflected by race and class,
migrate between the Southwest and Appalachia. Patron and
Bean provide a spectrum of women's situations in new
regional communities, ranging from feeling like a foreigner to
feeling a sense of
belonging. In tracing how these narratives demystify standing
stereotypes, this study encourages readers to reconsider and
redress systems of privilege and oppression based on location and
gender.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Engendering Appalachian and Southwestern Literature 1
Chapter 2
"You Don't Need a Weatherman" in Appalachia:
Region and Gender in Strange as This Weather Has Been and
Sula 39
Chapter 3
How the Southwest Winds Blow:
Region and Gender in So Far from God and Play It as It
Lays 82
Chapter 4
"The Distance between California and Kentucky":
Migrating Region and Gender in The Patron Saint of Liars
and
The Bean Trees 123
Works Cited 166
Non-Printed Sources Cited 179
About this Dissertation
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Primary PDF
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Engendering Regions in Contemporary Novels of Appalachia and the U.S. Southwest () | 2018-08-28 16:25:12 -0400 |
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Supplemental Files
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DISS Final Draft Submitted to LGS for Graduation.Chapter 3.docx () | 2018-08-28 16:25:26 -0400 |
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DISS Final Draft Submitted to LGS for Graduation.Chapter 2.docx () | 2018-08-28 16:25:48 -0400 |
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DISS Final Draft Submitted to LGS for Graduation.Non-Printed Sources Cited.docx () | 2018-08-28 16:26:27 -0400 |
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DISS Final Draft Submitted to LGS for Graduation.Chapter 4.docx () | 2018-08-28 16:26:32 -0400 |
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DISS Final Draft Submitted to LGS for Graduation.Works Cited.doc () | 2018-08-28 16:26:36 -0400 |
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DISS Final Draft Submitted to LGS for Graduation.Special Pages Front.docx () | 2018-08-28 16:26:42 -0400 |
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