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! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! © 2010 Anna L. Nielsen ! ! ! INVISIBLE SCARLET O’NEIL AND THE WHITMAN AUTHORIZED EDITIONS FOR GIRLS: HOMEFRONT REPRESENTATIONS OF THE AMERICAN FEMININE AND THE FEMININE HEROIC DURING WORLD WAR II BY ANNA L. NIELSEN DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Library and Information Science in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2010 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Professor Emerita Elizabeth G. Hearne, Chair Associate Professor Christine A. Jenkins, Director of Research Professor Daniel T. Schiller Professor Linda C. Smith ABSTRACT This dissertation analyzes the popular construction of femininity in the United States during World War II and the ways in which a set of mass market series books for girls participated in and reflected the persuasive campaigns of government, private industry, and mass media to script feminine roles and behaviors in the United States during and shortly after World War II. The dissertation illustrates and explains how the Whitman Authorized Editions for Girls, and especially Invisible Scarlett O’Neil, the first female superhero in the American culture industry, reflected and modeled the lives of women in three stages. Overall, cultural representations of women began as domestic paragons of good behavior and traditional feminine beauty, changed into women working in traditionally male jobs to maintain and defend the homefront, and then gracefully returned to the domestic sphere. Geertz’s (1973) idea of common sense as cultural system is extended to consider the cultural symbolism and cultural presuppositions that impacted the stories and were presented in the stories of the Whitman Authorized Editions for Girls. While studies have been done concerning the intertwining of propaganda imperatives and adult popular fiction, this dissertation helps bridge the literature gap between propaganda studies and children’s popular fiction. Further, the cultural definitions and uses of Denning (1987), Cawelti (1976), and Wright (2001) are extended to examine a set of formula fictions based on newspaper strips, comic books, and motion- picture stars. In addition, the work of McGrath (1973) and Albrecht (1956) concerning the interaction of popular fiction and popular culture, the work of Gates (2003) concerning fantasy, and the work of Butler (1990) concerning identity and gender are ! ""! extended to analyze how The Whitman Authorized Editions For Girls reinforced the social norms of the World War II period and operated as cultural fantasies of American femininity during this period. However, as Nava (1992) points out, the auditioning of identity through the consuming of cultural norms can sometimes be an empowering moment of finding identity and power in that identity. Many a reader may have grown up to fight crime without being invisible and to wear pants beyond 1945. I like to think they did. ! """! ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This study would not have been possible without the support of many people. I am grateful to my advisor, Elizabeth Hearne, who from the start believed in me, read, revised, and edited my many drafts, listened to my ideas, and encouraged me to talk through my work. Also thanks to Christine A. Jenkins for providing research advice and for helping me broaden my historical horizons, and for getting as excited as I do over primary documents. I am sincerely grateful to Dan Schiller for his gentle wisdom and deep knowledge, and his consistent willingness to teach me and talk about ideas with grace and humor. And finally, to Linda Smith for her eye for details and for being who she is: always there, always the best, and always with a smile. Thanks to Kathy Painter and Valerie Youngen of the GSLIS front office staff, who managed my every administrative question and crisis with ease and finesse. Thanks to the UIUC librarians who helped me navigate the stacks, reserve a study carrel with a window, and provided casual, expert reference. Thanks also to the women of the Wellfleet Public Library in Wellfleet, MA who cheerfully handled my many interlibrary loan requests and reminded me every day why I love libraries. Most of all, I want to thank my family, without whom I would not have made it through any of this. Thank you, for everything. ! "#! TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION........................................................................................1 CHAPTER 2: WOMEN AT HOME: PREMOBILIZATION...........................................21 CHAPTER 3: WOMEN IN THE WORK FORCE: MOBILIZATION ............................75 CHAPTER 4: WOMEN AT HOME AGAIN: DEMOBILIZATION .............................111 CHAPTER 5: INVISIBLE SCARLET O’NEIL..............................................................138 CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION ........................................................................................176 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................201 ILLUSTRATIONS ..........................................................................................................220 APPENDIX A: WHITMAN AUTHORIZED EDITIONS MYSTERY AND ADVENTURE STORIES FOR GIRLS FEATURING YOUR FAVORITE CHARACTERS - 1940s EDITIONS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER........................243 APPENDIX B: LIST OF ACRONYMS..........................................................................246 CURRICULUM VITAE..................................................................................................247 ! #! CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION American popular fiction and popular children’s series fiction participated in supporting directives of the war effort during World War II. Many scholars of children’s literature have looked at ways in which writers have shaped the cultural and commercial imagination of feminine identity. This dissertation extends this work to consider the construction of femininity in the culture industry of the United States during World War II and the ways in which a set of mass market series books for girls participated in the culture industry imagination of femininity. The Whitman Authorized Editions of Mystery and Adventure Stories for Girls Featuring Your Favorite Characters, especially Invisible Scarlet O’Neil (see fig. 1.1), the first female superhero in American popular culture, are examined as cultural artifacts of this participation. Before, during, and after the major campaigns by government, private industry, and mass media to get additional women into and out of the wartime economy workforce, the Whitman Authorized Editions reflected and modeled the lives of women in these stages1. Homefront representations of women began as domestic paragons of good behavior and traditional feminine beauty, changed into women working in traditionally male jobs to maintain and defend the homefront, and then gracefully returned to the domestic sphere. Following the lead of Maureen Honey in her study, Creating Rosie the Riveter: Class, Gender, and Propaganda during World War II (1984), in which she points out the connection between American fiction written !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1 Similar efforts, not within the scope of this dissertation, were directed at boys and men through the Whitman Authorized Editions of Mystery and Adventure Stories for Boys and other mass-market fiction and entertainment medias within the culture industry. ! 1 and published in magazines during World War II and propaganda story suggestions of the Office of War Information (OWI)2, and implementations of these suggestions by the Writers’ War Board (WWB), I suggest the congruence also takes place in popular children’s series literature for girls as exemplified by the Whitman Authorized Editions, even without formal directives from the OWI and WWB. In 1927, leading American propaganda theorist Harold D. Lasswell defined propaganda as “the control of opinion by significant symbols” (Shulman 1990 3; Lasswell). Propaganda efforts in World War I had been dramatic and hyperbolic, raising post-war fears about the effects of propaganda on democracy. Public and political discourse debated the righteousness of propaganda in the cause of national security and the dangerousness of propaganda against democracy and free speech. In 1940, President Roosevelt appointed a special committee, the Propaganda Committee, to study the pros and cons of utilizing propaganda in wartime. John J. McCloy, the assistant secretary to Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, told the committee that propaganda warfare was just as necessary for the mobilization effort as ground and air warfare (Shulman 1990 5). Propaganda theorist Brett Gary notes that after World War I “Campaigns and techniques of mass persuasion were an ineluctable condition of modern existence” (Gary 1999 1). By World War II, propaganda as a necessary and appropriate tool of persuasion was recognized and practiced by state and corporate interests3. Allan Winkler concludes in his analysis of the OWI during World War II, “In the end propaganda reflected American policy, and indeed America itself” (Winkler I974 303). I use the term to refer to the !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2 For a complete list of acronyms used in this text, please see Appendix B. 3 For in-depth historical examinations of propaganda and American democracy, see Gary, The Nervous Liberals: Propaganda Anxieties from World War I to the Cold War (1999); Schulman, the Voice of