000 04196cam a2200493 i 4500
001 2015005264
003 DLC
005 20190729110213.0
008 150225s2015 miu b s001 0deng
010 _a 2015005264
020 _a9780472072637 (hardcover)
020 _a9780472052639 (paper)
020 _z9780472121052 (ebook)
040 _aDLC
_beng
_erda
_cDLC
_dMvI
042 _apcc
043 _an-us----
050 0 0 _aPS374.M547
_bE45 2015
082 0 0 _a813.009/3526947
_223
084 _aSOC028000
_aLCO002000
_2bisacsh
100 1 _aEllerby, Janet Mason,
245 1 0 _aEmbroidering the Scarlet A :
_bunwed mothers and illegitimate children in American fiction and film /
_cJanet Mason Ellerby.
246 3 0 _aUnwed mothers and illegitimate children in American fiction and film
264 1 _aAnn Arbor :
_bUniversity of Michigan Press,
_c[2015]
300 _axii, 277 pages ;
_c24 cm
336 _atext
_2rdacontent
337 _aunmediated
_2rdamedia
338 _avolume
_2rdacarrier
520 _a"Embroidering the Scarlet A traces the evolution of the "fallen woman" from the earliest novels to recent representations in fiction and film, including The Scarlet Letter, The Sound and the Fury, The Color Purple, and Love Medicine, and the films Juno and Mother and Child. Interweaving her own experience as a pregnant teen forced to surrender her daughter and pledge secrecy for decades, Ellerby interrogates "out-of-wedlock" motherhood, mapping the ways archetypal scarlet women and their children have been exiled as social pariahs, pardoned as blameless pawns, and transformed into empowered women. Drawing on narrative, feminist, and autobiographical theory, the book examines the ways that the texts have affirmed, subverted, or challenged dominant thinking and the prevailing moral standards as they have shifted over time. Using her own life experience and her uniquely informed perspective, Ellerby assesses the effect these stories have on the lives of real women and children. By inhabiting the space where ideology meets narrative, Ellerby questions the constricting historical, cultural, and social parameters of female sexuality and permissible maternity. As a feminist cultural critique, a moving autobiographical journey, and an historical investigation that addresses both fiction and film, Embroidering the Scarlet A will appeal to students and scholars of literature, history, sociology, psychology, women's and gender studies, and film studies. The book will also interest general readers, as it relates the experience of surrendering a child to adoption at a time when birthmothers were still exiled, birth records were locked away, and secrecy was still mandatory. It will also appeal to those concerned with adoption or the cultural shifts that have changed our thinking about illegitimacy"--
_cProvided by publisher.
504 _aIncludes bibliographical references (pages 261-272) and index.
505 0 _aIntroduction -- The unwed mothers of the early American Novel -- Theodore Dreiser's all-giving angel: Jennie Gerhardt -- Edith Wharton's female enforcers -- The scarlet women of William Faulkner's The sound and the fury -- The unwed mother triumphant: Celie and Alice Walker's The color purple -- Illegitimacy and sexual violence -- Birthmothers in exile -- Fathering iIllegitimacy -- The legacy of secrets -- Birthmothers in the adoption triangle: Caroline Leavitt's Girls in trouble and Tim Kirkman's Loggerheads -- Comedy and the unwed mother -- Bearing sorrow -- Conclusion.
600 1 0 _aEllerby, Janet Mason.
650 0 _aAmerican fiction
_y20th century
_xHistory and criticism.
650 0 _aAmerican fiction
_xHistory and criticism
_y21st century.
650 0 _aUnmarried mothers in literature.
650 0 _aIllegitimate children in literature.
650 0 _aUnmarried mothers in motion pictures.
650 0 _aIllegitimate children in motion pictures.
650 7 _aSOCIAL SCIENCE / Women's Studies.
_2bisacsh
650 7 _aLITERARY COLLECTIONS / American / General.
_2bisacsh
948 _au603420
949 _aPS374 .M547 E45 2015
_wLC
_c1
_hEY8Z
_i33039001358067
596 _a1
903 _a31831
999 _c31831
_d31831