Current Search: Schreiner, Olive, 1855-1920 (x) » Story of an African farm. (x)
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Title
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The new woman before she was new: Olive Schreiner's "The Story of an African Farm" and Fanny Fern's "Ruth Hall".
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Creator
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Richardson, Dana Jo., Florida Atlantic University, Buckton, Oliver
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Abstract/Description
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Despite the designation of Olive Schreiner's Lyndall in The Story of an African Farm as the first "New Woman" in literature, the nineteenth-century New Woman, with her high ideals and belief in an androgynous compromise of sex roles, is exemplified by Fanny Fern's heroine Ruth in the novel Ruth Hall. While Lyndall speaks of social injustice done to women, the limitations of her provincial setting preclude her protests from achieving the level of social activism; however, Ruth's protests, in...
Show moreDespite the designation of Olive Schreiner's Lyndall in The Story of an African Farm as the first "New Woman" in literature, the nineteenth-century New Woman, with her high ideals and belief in an androgynous compromise of sex roles, is exemplified by Fanny Fern's heroine Ruth in the novel Ruth Hall. While Lyndall speaks of social injustice done to women, the limitations of her provincial setting preclude her protests from achieving the level of social activism; however, Ruth's protests, in the form of newspaper articles, do reach the level of social activism. Schreiner's androgynous ideal becomes lost in a role reversal rather than role dissolution, while Fern's Ruth achieves the metamorphosis from voiceless stereotype to empowered woman, breaking established gender conventions. Ruth, revealed to the literary world before Schreiner's Lyndall, is not only an earlier New Woman but also a stronger and more successful New Woman.
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Date Issued
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2000
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/15771
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Subject Headings
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Feminism in literature, Schreiner, Olive,--1855-1920--Criticism and interpretation, Schreiner, Olive,--1855-1920--Story of an African farm, Fern, Fanny,--1811-1872--Criticism and interpretation, Fern, Fanny,--1811-1872--Ruth Hall
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Format
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Document (PDF)
