| abstract | My dissertation attempts to fulfill a twofold agenda. First, as its title suggests, it argues for a certain kind of
literature, the significance of which has been all but overlooked. For too long, literature of the nineteenth century intended for a younger audience, that
which can rightly be considered the young adult fiction of its day, has been regarded as rhetorical fare designed only to divert and entertain, as mere pablum,
in other words. As a result, whatever meaning it may possess beyond the literal has largely gone unnoticed. The works my dissertation focuses on,
The Courtship of Miles Standish, Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and Little Women, may have been written for a youthful readership but in the end
reveal a subtext of very adult psychological import that has profound and direct meaning, particularly for those for whom these works were originally
intended: developing adolescents. For these stories have at their core the possibility for a utilitarian employment that can assist their readers in the
very arduous task of growing up, most especially in achieving that which serves as the center of this dissertation: the balance between masculine and
feminine sensibilities so necessary for the well-adjusted life. In unearthing substance from the seemingly substanceless, my dissertation will also
have the unintended consequence of legitimizing works that heretofore have been deemed unworthy for weighty consideration. My particular reading applies
the very formidable theoretical frameworks promulgated by Sigmund Freud, Carl Gustave Jung, and Jacques Lacan; therefore, at minimum,
The Courtship of Miles Standish, Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and Little Women must possess a thematic and rhetorical heft able to accommodate
such heady conceptual application. My dissertation does just this in the hope of providing developmental guidance for a reading public just coming into
its own while, at the same time, making the case for the canonization of these and other such works. |
