An Impossible Standard: The Virgin Mary and the Construction of Southern Womanhood

Authors

Dean Symmonds, Hollins UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-26-2017

Abstract

This paper examines Southern literature about white women in its religious and cultural contexts to illuminate the deeply embedded connections between the figure of the Virgin Mary and the archetypes of the white Southern Belle and Dixie Madonna, and reveal both a complex web of cultural constructions designed to control, critique, and constrain Southern women, and how women use those constructions to free themselves.

Comments

Undergraduate Research Awards - 2017 Finalist, First-year/Sophomore category

Recommended Citation

Symmonds, Dean, "An Impossible Standard: The Virgin Mary and the Construction of Southern Womanhood" (2017). Undergraduate Research Awards, Hollins University. 32.
https://digitalcommons.hollins.edu/researchawards/32