Radiant Daughters: Fictional American Women [Hardcover ed.] 0313251975, 9780313251979

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BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY

Digitized by the Internet Archive in

2017 with funding from

Kahle/Austin Foundation

https://archive.org/details/radiantdaughtersOOshin

4

Radiant Daughters

Recent Titles

in

Contributions in

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in

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^

Barbara A. White

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The Transformation of Abortion

in

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Nanette J. Davis Silence and Narrative:

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The Early Novels of Gertrude

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The

Politics

Judi

M.

of the Feminist Novel

Roller

Radiant

Daughters FICTIONAL

AMERICAN

WOMEN

Thelma J. Shinn

CONTRIBUTIONS

NUMBER

IN

WOMEN’S

STUDIES,

66

GREENWOOD

PRESS

NEW YORK WESTPORT, CONNECTICUT LONDON •

•

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Shinn, rhclinaj., 1942-

kadiant Daughters. in vvotncn’s studies,

(Contributions

ISSN 0147-104X

;

no. 66)

Bibliography;

p.

Includes index.

American

1.

fiction

—

2()th

century

— History and

Women in literature. 3. American fiction — Women authors — History and criticism.

criticism.

II.

2.

I.

Title.

Series.

PS374.W6S55

ISBN 0-313-25197-5 Copyright

©

(lib.

bdg.

1986 by Thelma

All rights reserved.

85-27196

813' .54'09352()42

1986

No

:

J.

alk.

paper)

Shinn

portion of this book

may

be

reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher.

Library of Congress Catalog Card

Number: 85-27196

ISBN: 0-313-25197-5 ISSN: 0147-104X First

Published

in

1986

Greenwood Press, Inc. 88 Post Road West Westport, Connecticut 06881 Printed in the United States of America

book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National

The paper used

in this

Information Standards Organization (Z39. 48-1984) 10

987654321

Acknowledgments Sections of this

book have previously appeared

reproduce materials,

we

in earlier

forms. For permission to

are indebted to the following sources:

“Flannery O’Connor and the Violence of Grace,” Cotitemporary Literature (Winter 1968), 58-73. Reprinted

“Women

by permission of the University of Wisconsin

Novels of Ann Petry,” Critique: Studies 110-20. Reprinted by permission of the publisher. in the

in

Modern

Press.

Fiction 16 (1974),

This book

is

dedicated to

radiant daughters”:

my

“glittering sons and

Ramona, Rebecca,

Joe, Jim, and Rachel.

**3

i

4

—

What

bright babes had Lilith and

(Eden bower’s

Adam!

in flower.)

Shapes that coiled

in the

woods and

waters.

Glittering sons and radiant daughters.

Dante Gabriel

Rossetti,

“Eden Bower”

r'

Contents

Acknowl ed^^m et

i

xi

ts

Preface

Introduction

xiii

V

1

1

Stumbling over Stereotypes: Fiction of the 40’s

13

2

A

75

Strategic Retreat: Fiction of the 50’s

3 Growing, Growing, 4 Afterword on the

Grown:

7()’s

Fiction of the 60’s

and 80’s

125

183

Bibliography

189

Index

201

1

Acknowledgments

Papers based on

this material

have been read

Rocky Mountain Modern Language

at

meetings of the

American Association of University Women, and the Conference on Sexism in Education I

Arizona State University.

acknowledge thanks due to my classes in and Myth, Contemporary American Women Writers and

would

Women Women

at

Association,

also like to

Arizona State University for the insights they have contributed and generated which have greatly enriched this work. Acknowledgment of the contributions of writers and scholars has been given in the endnotes and bibliography. in Society at

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#WMj'

it**

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