The Politics of Genre and Gender in Tabitha Gilman Tenney’s Female Quixotism

Open Cultural Studies

Dragoş Ivana¹ 

关键词: early American novel;    romance;    the female quixote;    misreading;    Federalism;   

DOI  :  10.1515/culture-2017-0043

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: De Gruyter

【 摘 要 】

Abstract The present article focuses on transatlantic female quixotism, as enacted by Tabitha Tenney’s heroine, Dorcasina Sheldon. I argue that quixotism can be read as an interface between the events of the story and the Federalist conservative discourse that underlies them. In doing so, I claim that, in terms of gender, the heroine’s misreading of romances transforms her into a political tool whereby the ideals of female freedom and agency, social mobility, gender equality, racial equity and abolitionism-effective under Thomas Jefferson’s administration-are satirically depicted and seen as delusory in post-Revolutionary America. In terms of generic categories, I will show how Female Quixotism blurs the epistemological boundaries between truth and fiction by juxtaposing novel and romance, used interchangeably, with history.

【 授权许可】

CC BY-NC-ND