The Farthest West Beach: An Italian American woman's search for a literary identity (with Original writing, Short stories).

摘要

This dissertation is part analytical and part creative. The first part discusses the absence of Italian American literary role models in academia, especially for Italian American women writers. The author then analyzes the narrative strategies of Anglo American, Native American, and African American women writers who have regularly been included in academia and who can be studied as possible adoptive literary role models. The authors discussed in the section on Anglo American writers include Anne Bradstreet, Susanna Rowson, Hannah Foster, Judith Murray, Catharine Sedgwick, Margaret Fuller, Mott and Stanton, Harriet Stowe, Emily Dickinson, Kate Chopin, Sarah Jewett, Carson McCullers, and Rita Mae Brown. The section on Native American writers includes discussions on the works of Zitkala Sa, Mourning Dove, Soge Track, Vickie Sears, Patricia Riley, Linda Hogan, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Louise Erdrich. The section on African American writers includes discussions on the works of Phillis Wheatley, Harriet Jacobs, Harriet Wilson, Nella Larsen, Alice Walker, and Toni Morrison.; The second part is a collection of the author's short fiction. The first story, “Total Eclipse,” depicts Theresa, a young girl who learns about the strict separation between traditional male and female roles. In the next story, “The Farthest West Beach,” the main character, Christina, a fifteen-year-old, defies her overbearing father and, in her own way, escapes the limiting social expectations placed on Italian American females. The third story, “Back to Sleep,” tells of a young woman, Laura, who is experiencing the conflict of entering the academic and literary world in which she, because of her social class and cultural background, is convinced she has no place. The fourth story, “More Like Me Than Myself,” explores gender identity and social expectations in the lives of two Italian American adolescent girls. The last story, “Dreaming in the Life of Peg Hart,” depicts the life of a supermarket employee. Although the story does not directly discuss Italian American issues, it addresses the feelings of loneliness and isolation all marginalized people experience.