Date of Award

1-1-1996

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

English

Abstract

Freeman's critical reputation was determined by cultural definitions of women, and women writers, just as her portrayals of race, children, and women in the short stories, novels, and plays place her in the cultural context of her time. After virtual critical neglect from 1930-1975, there is a revival of interest in her writing--evidenced by a full-length study, a collection of criticism, a collection of her previously uncollected stories, and numerous articles. This renewed conversation about Freeman's work provides the impetus to evaluate the effect of her fiction on her own time and on present readers, ethical criticism as practiced by Wayne C. Booth.The study suggests that critical methodologies previously applied to Freeman's fiction have limited the discussion Freeman as local colorist, short story writer, writer for the market-place, and radical subverter of convention. Especially as her critical reputation grows, I advocate applying ethical criticism to her whole body of work in order to broaden the discussion and to further evaluate her writing.Because Freeman's fiction was very widely read and praised in her day, and because the present revival of interest forecasts a greater audience in the future, I believe it is profitable to apply ethical criticism to her writing. By examining Freeman's views of race, children, and women's roles against the background of the contemporary discussion, it is possible to place this writer in her cultural context and try to determine the harmful or beneficial effects her writing might have exerted on her society--recognizing that "harmful" and "beneficial" will be defined very differently by different readers. For modern readers this examination can both increase our sense of literary history, and engage us in the continuing discussion of these ideas at the same time that we evaluate her technical skills.Freeman's changing literary reputation also reflects her society's views. Though one might seek to explain the decline in Freeman's critical reputation by her opposition to current views on social issues, such is not the case. Since her views on race mirror the genteel popular press and her views of women and children are only slightly more liberal, these differences do not account for radical changes in her literary stock. Instead, criticism and editorials make clear that, though Freeman and other women writers received favorable reviews, a woman writer could not have achieved first-rank status, until lately when women writers' artistry could be judged as seriously as men writers'.

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