Women Writing the American Artist in Novels of Development from 1850-1932: The Artist Embodied

American women artists from 1850-1932 were confined by cultural, social, and legal patriarchal systems, which portrayed them as "abnormal" for wanting anything other than motherhood. However, female coming-of-age stories complicate this rhetoric by revealing how the roles of wife and mother are also "abnormal" in their self-sacrificial demands. The Artist Embodied: The Development of Women Artists in American Literature from 1850-1940 argues that in the female Künstlerromane, or artist novels, the protagonists' bodies demand an outlet to articulate desires that defy patriarchal rhetoric. This demand becomes an artistic drive to express an embodied knowledge in a new language of artistic invention, establishing the female body as generative beyond corporeal reproduction.

Format: Hardback
Length: 244 pages
Publication date: 06 May 2021
Publisher: Lexington Books

From 1850 to 1932, American women artists found their bodies and desires tightly constrained by cultural, social, and legal patriarchal systems. Women were often portrayed as "abnormal" for harboring desires that went beyond motherhood, yet female coming-of-age stories complicate this rhetoric by revealing how the roles of wife and mother are themselves "abnormal" in their self-sacrificial demands. The Artist Embodied: The Development of Women Artists in American Literature from 1850 to 1940 argues that in the female Künstlerromane, or artist novels, the protagonists bodily demands seek an outlet to articulate desires that defy restrictive patriarchal rhetoric. This demand becomes an artistic drive to express an embodied knowledge in a new language of artistic invention that establishes the female body as generative beyond corporeal reproduction. This book explores the development of the female artist in American literature by women writers, including the work of E.D.E.N. Southworth, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Kate Chopin, Willa Cather, Jessie Fauset, and Zelda Fitzgerald. Each of these authors depicts the coming-of-age of women artists to assert the legitimacy of their art, pushing back against the erroneous notion that women are, at best, talented hobbyists, and, at worst, a scribbling mob drawing attention away from more substantial works by critically acclaimed male authors.

Weight: 544g
Dimension: 228 x 163 x 25 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781793610348