Nineteenth-Century American Realism and Ideal Gender Roles

FAIN: FA-12082-78

Alfred C. Habegger
University of Kansas, Lawrence (Lawrence, KS 66045-7505)

To complete a book on 19th century American realism and ideal gender roles which will place realism in its full social and historical context and thus establish a new link between literature and its social matrix. Study involves three major hypotheses: (1) that the separation of the sexes in 19th century America into complementary spheres led them to develop mutually hostile ethos; (2) that the essential social function of the domestic novel was to articulate mass gender-bound daydreams; (3) that the realistic novel emerged antagonistically from domestic fiction: realism was the close study of domestic failure.