Gold -diggers in the literature and popular culture of the 1920's and 1930's.

摘要

This study traces the development of the gold-digging woman of literature and popular culture from her early roots in the 1890's when she was more often than not the victim and example in a morality tale. Next, it follows her through the 1920's when she expressed her desire for greater access to the economic growth of the decade, usually in baby-talk. After exploring the tenuous relationship of the gold-digger and her culture in the 1920's, it continues into the early 1930's, when the gold-digger came of age and demanded that she was a force to be reckoned with; then, it examines how the gold-digger calls gender and class inequities into question and thereby comes to be regarded as an increasing threat to American systems of economics and morality. As a result, efforts to contain her were put into place by the mid thirties in the form of legal restrictions and censorship. Finally, this study traces the gold-digger's continuing fall from grace through the 1940's and 1950's. Drawing on feminist theories, class studies, and popular culture theory, this study examines the gold-digger as an important force that grows out of women's dissatisfaction with their limited opportunities for movement in a wealthy nation.