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Full Description
Alternating chapters of historical background and literary analysis, this study argues that postbellum series books inspired young women by illustrating the ways in which girls could participate in social change, whether through church societies, benevolent organizations, educational institutions or political groups. By 1900, however, the socialization of series heroines had shifted to the consumer marketplace, where girls could develop personality and taste through their purchases.
Both models had benefits: Religious faith and political activism gave young women moral power within their communities; consuming gave them opportunities to indulge individual desires and often to socialize in public without adult oversight. This work adds to the existing scholarship on girls' culture not only by examining the beginnings of series fiction for girls and the models of womanhood it presented but also by tracing the shifting social ideologies of girlhood throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Contents
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
One. Learning to Be an Angel: Religion and Reading for Nineteenth-Century American Girls
Two. Angels in the House: Christian Womanhood and Community Power in Postbellum Girls' Series
Three. A Revolution in Series Production: Edward Stratemeyer and the Commodification of Series Books
Four. Communities of Friends: Series Heroines as Consumers, 1901-1930
Five. Two Miles Forward, One Mile Back: Gender Battles During the Great War
Six. Running the Gamut and the Gauntlet: World War I Series Fiction as a Catalyst for Change in the Cultural Landscape of American Girlhood
Seven. Taking Advantage of New Markets: Ruth Fielding as a Motion Picture Screenwriter, Producer, and Executive
Conclusion: Nancy Drew and a New Era
Appendix: Series Books in Order of Publication
Bibliography
Index
