Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Gregory, Kristen M

Titel

The female Robinsonade and the girl survivor in American children's literature

Ort / Verlag

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses

Erscheinungsjahr

2013

Link zum Volltext

• ProQuest

Quelle

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Daniel Defoe's 1719 text, Robinson Crusoe, has given rise to its own literary subgenre--the Robinsonade. Most notably, the classic novel has inspired a series of Robinonades for children in addition to a set of female Crusoe stories. The original Robinson Crusoe is a story of masculinity, enterprise, imperialism, and Christian conquest; however, many of these themes change when the format is adapted for a child or female audience. Children's and female Robinsonades traditionally advocate a temporary season of liberty followed by a return to domesticity. This emphasis on a conservative return to society is doubled in children's female Robinsonades. This thesis explores how the female survivor of children's Robinsonades has transformed throughout twentieth-century American literature using three texts: Carol Ryrie Brink's Baby Island (1937), Scott O'Dell's Island of the Blue Dolphins (1960), and Robert C. O'Brien's Z for Zachariah (1973). While early female Crusoe tales for children emphasize the superiority of domesticity in girls, later survival tales endorse a more radical adolescent femininity. In either case, the texts celebrate one version of femininity and denigrate another. Hence, this thesis suggests that these texts convey a restrictive notion of femininity and feminism to their adolescent female readers because they all champion one type of femininity as superior. The conclusion examines the evolution of the female Crusoe into the popular survivor girl in contemporary American young adult literature. Even though these girls do not live on a deserted island, they still fulfill many of the same functions as the female castaway, including operating as icons of idealized femininity. While these fierce huntresses and superior combatants offer an empowering message for young girls, they still ultimately perpetuate problematic understandings of femininity and feminism. This thesis ends with a call for teachers, parents, and critics to stop idolizing the female survivor as an emblem of feminine perfection and begin to acknowledge that these literary role models are flawed in order to foster a more realistic conception of adolescent femininity.