Date of Thesis

Winter 2017

Description

Two streams of literary narratives appearing during the Great Depression grew from personal and historical experiences of their women authors with overlapping but very different perspectives on American cultural history. These were: 1) The accounts of rural frontier Midwestern regional experiences of Laura Ingalls Wilder, as edited and shaped in part by her daughter and writing partner Rose Wilder Lane, in retrospect during the New Deal era; and 2) the 1920s urban African-American experience of Zora Neale Hurston in the context of an emerging national black artistic and intellectual scene. Through a shared feminism emphasizing freedom for women, these authors advanced ideals that are hallmarks of conservative politics today from diverse perspectives.

Keywords

Feminism, Conservatism, Zora Neale Hurston, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Rose Wilder Lane

Access Type

Honors Thesis

Degree Type

Bachelor of Arts

Major

English

First Advisor

Alfred Siewers

Second Advisor

Kat Lecky

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