Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Spring 1989

Keywords

Depiction of women, Genre and gender

Abstract

The strong, dark women who live in Nathaniel Hawthorne's major romances invite us to view their author as sympathetic to what Nina Auerbach has called "the complex life of woman in culture". Hester Prynne, Zenobia, and Miriam all shine as "female representatives of the human creative and passionate forces". Indeed, Hawthorne's depiction of women and his attitude toward feminist ideas in the romances is strongly sympathetic. Because of this sensitivity, the negative presentation of the title character in the earlier children's story "Queen Christina," part of the Biographical Stories for Children collection, raises troubling questions about Hawthorne's handling of genre and gender.

Publication Title

Children's Literature

Volume

18

First Page

124

Last Page

133

Required Publisher's Statement

Copyright © 1989 The Johns Hopkins University Press. This article first appeared in Children's Literature, Volume 17, Spring, 1989, pages 124-133.

Comments

This article came from The Laura Laffrado Collection, Western Collection, Special Collections, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University.

Guide to the Laura Laffrado Collection:

http://content.wwu.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/scfa/id/75/rec/29

Subjects - Topical (LCSH)

Children's literature, American--Study and teaching; Sex role in literature; Women in literature

Subjects - Names (LCNAF)

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864. Queen Christina

Genre/Form

articles

Type

Text

Language

English

Format

application/pdf

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