Beyond Nancy Drew -

Beyond Nancy Drew

U.S. Girls’ Series Fiction in the Twentieth Century
Buch | Hardcover
296 Seiten
2024
Lexington Books/Fortress Academic (Verlag)
978-1-6669-4667-3 (ISBN)
114,70 inkl. MwSt
This edited collection recovers “lost” girls’ series fiction heroines of the twentieth century. The chapters examine the role the heroines’ sociohistorical contexts play in the narrative plot lines as well as the series’ popularity and relatability for readers.
Titular series heroine Nancy Drew has taken up most of the scholarly attention surrounding mid-century U.S. girls’ series, and for good reason given her popularity, longevity, and feminist leanings. Since her debut in the 1930s, Nancy has been foiling criminals for nearly a century. However, Nancy and her heroics do not occur in either a publishing or a temporal vacuum. The chapters in this collection examine the narratives of series heroines that preceded and those that followed Nancy Drew, each in relation to their social, historical, and economic environments. Covering heroines including Miss Pickerell, Madge Sterling, and Polly the Powers Model, among others, this book illustrates that the recovery of stolen inheritances during the Great Depression serves different social ends than, for example, fighting Germans on an international stage. While Nancy Drew’s plotlines may have evolved alongside the changing historical context, this book invites readers to critically examine the stories of some of these other “lost” heroines of twentieth century U.S. series fiction. Organized by time period, the chapters give insight into the cultural landscape that perpetuated the popularity of these heroines in their respective eras, how these series reflected the experiences of readers across the decades, and their continued impact well into the twenty-first century.

LuElla D'Amico is associate professor of English and coordinator of the women’s and gender studies program at the University of the Incarnate Word. Emily Hamilton-Honey is associate professor of English and humanities at SUNY Canton.

Introduction: Imperfect Adventures: ‘Relatable’ Heroines in Twentieth-Century Girls’ Series Fiction

LuElla D’Amico and Emily Hamilton-Honey

Chapter 1: Betty Wales: From Series Book Heroine to Lifestyle Brand

Jill Hobgood

Chapter 2: Adventure, Mystery, and Fashion: On Fashion and the Modelling Profession in Polly the Powers Model: The Puzzle of the Haunted Camera

Erika Johansson Lunding

Chapter 3: Finding the Right Formula, or How The Madge Sterling Series Provided Mildred Wirt (Benson) with the Perfect Formula for Writing Children’s Mystery Series

Todd Latoski

Chapter 4: Before Nancy Drew: American Girls' Series Fiction of the 1920s

Susan Ingalls Lewis

Chapter 5: On Being Glad: Pollyanna and Stoic Thought

LuElla D'Amico and Gregory Eiselein

Chapter 6: “To See If College Could Make Half the Woman of Me That It Made of My Mother”: The Beverly Gray Series as a Mid-Century Return to Progressive Era Girls’ Series Fiction

Emily Hamilton-Honey

Chapter 7: Maida Westabrook: Inez Haynes Gillmore Irwin’s Little Lady Bountiful

Robin Cadwallader

Chapter 8: Miss Pickerell Tackles the Stereotypes: Gender, Science Education, and Mid-century Science Fiction

Liz W. Faber

Chapter 9: “More like Americans”: Sydney Taylor’s Queering of Historical Fiction Girls’ Series Melanie J. Fishbane

Chapter 10: “To prove their worth in a man’s world”: Depicting and Encouraging White Women’s Growing Professional Opportunities in Betty Baxter Anderson’s 1940s Career Novels Karen Keely

Chapter 11: Inventing the Career Girl Narrative in Vicki Barr

Michael Cornelius

Chapter 12: Student Dancer: Education, Community, and Love in Regina J. Woody’s Dance-Career Novels

Jill E. Anderson

Erscheinungsdatum
Reihe/Serie Children and Youth in Popular Culture
Co-Autor Jill Hobgood, Erika Johansson Lunding, Todd Latoski
Sprache englisch
Maße 152 x 229 mm
Themenwelt Geisteswissenschaften Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft Anglistik / Amerikanistik
Geisteswissenschaften Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft Literaturwissenschaft
Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie Gender Studies
ISBN-10 1-6669-4667-2 / 1666946672
ISBN-13 978-1-6669-4667-3 / 9781666946673
Zustand Neuware
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