Beyond Little Women

This collection concentrates on the secondary works of Louisa May Alcott and looks at the idea that Alcott was as heavily influenced by her times as by her transcendentalist upbringing. Her work often subverts the conventional and includes the new, the practical, and the real. The sections include: (1) the gothic and the monstrous feminine, (2) the theme of useful work, (3) the themes of physical and mental health, and (4) Alcott's philosophy concerning creativity and genius. Contributors emphasize Alcott's belief in women's agency and argue that Alcott can be considered as a brilliant bridge between the Transcendental idealism of the early nineteenth century and later reforms.

Goes beyond Little Women to consider other important works by Louisa May Alcott Explores how Alcott's views evolved away from the conventional and sentimental toward the real and the progressive Shows how Alcott anticipated the Progressive Era, with its emphasis on taking action, defining self and creating agency

Auteur

Lauren Hehmeyer , M.A., M.I.S., is a retired professor from Texarkana College, USA. She is the co-editor of The Forgotten Alcott: Essays on the Artistic Legacy and Literary Life of May Alcott Nieriker (2022). She has presented papers on the Alcotts in Paris, France; Lancaster, England; and Concord, Massachusetts

Texte du rabat

Lauren Hehmeyer's collection provides new and engaging discussions of Louisa May Alcott's work before and after the transformative phenomenon that was Little Women. This book is an excellent addition to Alcott studies. Not only does it provide welcome resources for the study of Alcott's secondary works, some of which have received little scholarly attention, it also brings together the voices of established and emerging scholars in the field.

Prof. Marlowe Daly-Galeano, Lewis-Clark State College, USA

Beyond Little Women is the most capacious examination of Alcott's oeuvre to date. It introduces readers to the impressive range of Alcott's writings and includes her experiments in Gothic fiction, journalism, children's stories, and engagement with the Romantic sublime. Hehmeyer convincingly argues that Alcott's significance goes beyond her Transcendentalist connections.

Dr Azelina Flint, Lancaster University, UK

This is an indispensable volume that moves beyond Alcott's most well-known book to delve into Alcott's interest in the Gothic, health, creativity, work, education, politics, and changing women's roles. Her female characters are seen as progressive in their own terms as Alcott reinvents Emersonian self-reliance in female terms.

Monika Elbert, Prof. of English, Montclair State University, USA

This collection concentrates on the secondary works of Louisa May Alcott and looks at the idea that Alcott was as heavily influenced by her times as by her transcendentalist upbringing. Her work often subverts the conventional and includes the new, the practical, and the real. The sections include: (1) the gothic and the monstrous feminine, (2) the theme of useful work, (3) the themes of physical and mental health, and (4) Alcott's philosophy concerning creativity and genius. Contributors emphasize Alcott's belief in women's agency and argue that Alcott can be considered as a brilliant bridge between the Transcendental idealism of the early nineteenth century and later reforms.

Lauren Hehmeyer, M.A., M.I.S., is a retired professor from Texarkana College, USA. She is the co-editor of The Forgotten Alcott: Essays on the Artistic Legacy and Literary Life of May Alcott Nieriker (2022). She has presented papers on the Alcotts in Paris, France; Lancaster, England; and Concord, Massachusetts.

Contenu

Chapter 1: Introduction.- Part 1 Re-defining the Gothic: The Sensational has a Modern Edge.- Chapter 2: The Sensational Possibilities of the Double-Proposal Plot in Alcott's Moods.- Chapter 3: Reading the Monstrous Feminine in the Works of Louisa May Alcott.- Part 2 Re-Defining Woman's Identity through Work.- Chapter 4: Louisa May Alcott's Literary Activism: A Realist Reading of Hospital Sketches.- Chapter 5: Louisa May Alcott's Work: A Story of Experience and the Heroine's Educational.- Chapter 6: Louisa May Alcott's Re-Working of Thoreau's Walden.- Chapter 7: Circus, Gender, and Class Under the Lilacs.- Part 3 Re-defining Health and Strength.- Chapter 8: Health Should Come First: Alcott's Model of Hygienic Female Development in Eight Cousins.- Chapter 9: Cozy Corners and Pebbly Beaches: Resolving Emotional Distress through Nature Connectedness in Eight Cousins, Rose in Bloom and Jack and Jill. Chapter 10: A Sweeter Poem Than Any They Could Write: Female Mental Resilience and Genre Limitations in A Whisper in the Dark and A Modern Mephistopheles.- Part 4 Re-defining Creativity: A Challenge to Emersonian Ideas.- Chapter 11: Women in search of the Sublime: Louisa May Alcott and May Alcott Nieriker.- Chapter 12: Hospital Sketches and Celebrity Authorship in the Civil War Era.- Chapter 13: The Care and Feeding of Genius: Louisa May Alcott's Jo's Boys.