Unhousing in Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- This thesis analyzes Marilynne Robinson's first novel, Housekeeping, as both a new American gothic novel and a feminist text. Through the function and trajectory of the house in the novel, Housekeeping borrows from the gothic tradition. However, through the ultimate destruction of the physical structure and the metaphysical sense of home, this novel's female characters achieve a level of freedom not granted in the gothic tradition. This thesis proposes that by destabilizing traditional understandings of domesticity, Robinson imagines a possible escape for the woman trapped in the house and breaks the societal bind between women and the domestic sphere.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | May 2016 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Schrier, Emilia |
|---|---|
| Degree granting institution | Stanford University, Department of English |
| Primary advisor | Ngai, Sianne |
| Advisor | Staveley, Alice |
Subjects
| Subject | Stanford University |
|---|---|
| Subject | Department of English |
| Subject | English |
| Subject | Marilynne Robinson |
| Subject | Housekeeping |
| Subject | house |
| Subject | escape |
| Subject | American |
| Subject | gothic novel |
| Subject | second wave feminism |
| Subject | 20th century |
| Subject | 20th century literature |
| Subject | feminist literature |
| Subject | female author |
| Subject | house |
| Subject | domesticity |
| Subject | domestic sphere |
| Subject | cult of domesticity |
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
- Schrier, Emilia and Ngai, Sianne and Staveley, Alice. (2016). Unhousing in Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: http://purl.stanford.edu/wr993cj0477
Collection
Stanford University, Department of English, Undergraduate Honors Theses
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- Contact
- eschrier@stanford.edu
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