Valuing Girlhood in Wilder's Little House
Title and/or Affiliation
Dawn Sardella-Ayres, Hollins University
Presenter Bio
Dawn Sardella-Ayres received her PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2016. She is the current L.M. Montgomery Institute Research Associate for 2022-2023, and specializes in girls’ literature and the girls’ Bildungsroman/Kunstlerroman. Her publications include articles on Alcott, Montgomery, Johnston, and Wilder.
Session
Panel: The Values in Girls’ Storytelling Voices
Location
Zoom
Start Date
28-6-2024 4:15 PM
End Date
28-6-2024 5:30 PM
Abstract
Rose Wilder Lane’s influences on her mother Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books, both as a Libertarian and as an editor, have already been the subject of much study. Finding Lane's political ideologies in a series of books focused on an American girl's bildungsroman (and kunstlerroman) is complex enough on its own. However, it is possible to read in the Little House texts, as well as in Wilder and Lane’s own complicated collaborations, detailed economic costs of being a daughter and a wife, the almost punitive costs of all-American girlhood.
Valuing Girlhood in Wilder's Little House
Zoom
Rose Wilder Lane’s influences on her mother Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books, both as a Libertarian and as an editor, have already been the subject of much study. Finding Lane's political ideologies in a series of books focused on an American girl's bildungsroman (and kunstlerroman) is complex enough on its own. However, it is possible to read in the Little House texts, as well as in Wilder and Lane’s own complicated collaborations, detailed economic costs of being a daughter and a wife, the almost punitive costs of all-American girlhood.