Emerging Agency in American Women's Novels Before the Civil War

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports 2013 From Sinners to Saints: Emerging Agency in American Women's Novels before the Civil War Amy Howard Green West Virginia University Follow this and additional works at: https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd Recommended Citation Green, Amy Howard, "From Sinners to Saints: Emerging Agency in American Women's Novels before the Civil War" (2013). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 4969. https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/4969 This Dissertation is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by the The Research Repository @ WVU with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Dissertation in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. 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From Sinners to Saints: Emerging Agency in American Women's Novels before the Civil War Amy Howard Green Dissertation submitted to The Eberly College of Arts and Sciences at West Virginia University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English Timothy Sweet, Ph.D., Chair Cari Carpenter, Ph.D. Michael Germana, Ph.D. John Ernest, Ph.D. Janie Hinds, Ph.D. Department of English Morgantown, West Virginia 2013 Keywords: American Literature; Seduction Novel; Eighteenth Century; Nineteenth Century; Bildungsroman; Religion; Agency; Women; Reader Response Copyright 2013 Amy Howard Green Abstract From Sinners to Saints: Emerging Agency in American Women's Novels before the Civil War Amy Howard Green This study investigates the ways in which the narrative of salvation contributed to the development of female selfhood in American women’s novels before the Civil War. Over time, protagonists of some of the most popular of these novels were transformed from victims of seduction (as in Charlotte Temple or The Coquette) into self-reliant agents of virtue (as in The Wide, Wide World or The Lamplighter). Such a depiction suggests that a similar shift in readers’ imaginations of their own selfhood was also taking place, and it paralleled changes in the genre conventions of novels that have been traditionally identified as “woman’s fiction.” The examination of how selfhood functions in this fiction employs a concept of agency that is grounded in Michel Foucault’s notion of “moral action.” Because novels such as these generally sought to promote action that was deemed “moral” by the cultural environments in which they were written, the self that existed in those texts did so in relation to the social order of that time. The novel, as a genre, is especially useful in depicting an imaginary representation of those particular models in and against which a relationship with the self develops; through novel reading, one may imagine differing plot lines or disparate realms which function to reinforce or challenge accepted social norms for behavior. This study contends that the foundation for developing agency in these novels was based primarily on the concurrently fluctuating conception of the self in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century religious discourse as it moved from promoting a Calvinist world view to championing individual free will. As the restrictive Calvinist notion of election declined in popular theology, Americans began to embrace the doctrine of universal salvation that foregrounded the importance of the sinner’s ability to choose to accept God’s saving grace. iii Acknowledgements A simple “thank you” is not sufficient to express my gratitude to my committee chair, Timothy Sweet, for his countless hours of work in helping me to conceptualize, draft, and revise this dissertation. He is a gifted editor with an exceptional talent for helping others to realize their own potential. Without his patience, care, time, and devotion this project would not have been completed. I would also like to thank the other members of my committee, Cari Carpenter, Michael Germana, John Ernest, and Janie Hinds. Each of them went beyond the call of duty in offering suggestions and support. In particular, I am grateful to John Ernest for reading and responding to more than one draft of each chapter and to Janie Hinds for her encouraging words and ready smile at times when they were most needed. Finally, I would like to acknowledge my family, without whom I could not have taken this journey. My parents, Andy and Judy Howard, supported me throughout my undergraduate education and cheered me on at every step in this process; their belief in my abilities has been a constant source of inspiration in my life. My sister, Jennifer Albrecht, reassured me and bolstered my confidence on a weekly basis; her love and advice often gave me the fortitude to persevere. My brother, Scott Howard, made me laugh and showed boundless delight for my work. My children, John, Megan, and Rachel, provided the motivation for finishing this project and taught me how to find joy in simple moments: John’s smile gave me hope, Megan’s admiration gave me confidence, and Rachel’s enthusiasm gave me strength. Most of all, though, my husband, John, has supported me in every aspect of my life and work for as long as I have known him. Without his endless and unwavering encouragement, I never could have achieved this lifelong goal. iv Table of Contents Introduction…………………………………………………………………...…..………...… 1 Chapter One: Disparities of Voice and Choice in Charlotte Temple…………………..……. 16 Chapter Two: In Her Own Words: Speaking Selfhood in The Coquette……………..……… 52 Chapter Three: Kelroy’s Problems with Republican Motherhood………………..……….… 92 Chapter Four: Universal Salvation and Emerging Agency in A New-England Tale….….… 145 Chapter Five: Female Selfhood as Constituted in Popular Women’s Novels of the 1850s: The Wide, Wide World; The Lamplighter; and Ruth Hall…………….………. 195 Conclusions and Beyond ……………………………………………………...…………….. 236 Works Cited ………………………………………………………………………………….. 248 1 Introduction Novels written by women in America in the years following the Revolution are generally categorized as seduction narratives; likewise, most of the novels written by women in the decades prior to the Civil War are referred to as tales of domesticity. The last decades of the twentieth century and the start of the twenty-first have witnessed many exemplary critics reclaiming these previously oft-forgotten works as important literary and cultural artifacts in ways that have helped to explicate more fully our nation’s history and culture during that critical era between those two wars. Nevertheless, it is curious that those examinations have offered little thus far in the way of explanation for how the protagonists of some of the most popular writing in America were transformed from victims of seduction in early works like Charlotte Temple or The Coquette into self-reliant agents of virtue in 1850s novels like The Wide, Wide World or The Lamplighter. In scrutinizing some of these archetypal works of novelistic discourse from the texts published between 1790 and the 1850s in America, I will examine what I take to be the central means by which such a shift was made possible—namely, the depiction of the female protagonists as selves with whom their readers could safely identify. Such a depiction suggests that a similar shift in actual readers’ imaginations of their own selfhood was also taking place. The key aspect of selfhood as far as I am concerned is agency, and my study focuses on a conceptualization of selfhood in terms of agency. The developments I posit in the conventions of the self parallel changes in the genre conventions of novelistic discourse in texts that have been traditionally identified as “woman’s fiction.” In examining how selfhood functions in this “woman’s fiction,” I employ a concept of agency that is grounded in Michel Foucault’s notion of “moral action.” Foucault posits that all such action “involves a relationship with the reality in which it is carried out, and a relationship 2 with the self” (28). Because novels such as the ones I am studying generally seek to promote action that has been deemed “moral” by the cultural environments in which they were produced, the self that exists in these texts does so in relation to the social order of that time. As the self develops, it responds to the various possibilities and restrictions inherent in the social roles available to it at that time and in that place. This conceptualization of agency reflects Foucault’s contention that “a history of the way in which individuals are urged to constitute themselves as subjects of moral conduct would be concerned with the models proposed for setting up and developing relationships with the self” (29). The novel, as a genre, is especially useful in depicting an imaginary representation of those particular models in and against which a relationship with the self develops; through novel reading, one may imagine differing plot lines or disparate realms which function to reinforce or to challenge accepted social norms for behavior. As Cathy N. Davidson notes, “novels struggle with the regulation of private behavior in the face of public

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