Conflicting Stories : American Women Writers at the Turn Into the Twentieth Century

The Early 1890s Through The Late 1920s Saw An Explosion In The Serious Long Fiction By Women In The United States. Considering A Wide Range Of Authors--african American, Asian American, White American, And Native American--this Book Looks At The Work Of Seventeen Writers From That Period: Frances Ellen Harper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Sarah Orne Jewett, Alice Dunbar-nelson, Kate Chopin, Pauline Hopkins, Gertrude Stein, Mary Austin, Sui Sin Far, Willa Cather, Humishuma, Jessie Fauset, Edith Wharton, Ellen Glasgow, Anzia Yezierska, Edith Summers Kelley, And Nella Larsen. The Discussion Focuses On The Differences In Their Work And The Similarities That Unite Them, Particularly Their Determination To Experiment With Narrative Form As They Explored And Voiced Issues Of Power For Women. Analyzing The Historical Context That Both Enabled And Limited American Women Writers At The Turn Of The Century, Ammons Provides Detailed Readings Of Many Texts And Offers Extensive Commentary On The Interaction Between Race And Gender. This Book Joins The Deepening Discussion Of Modern Women Writers' Creation Of Themselves As Artists And Raises Fundamental Questions About The Shape Of American Literary History As It Has Been Constructed In The Academy. Breaking The Silence : Iola Leroy -- Writing Silence : The Yellow Wallpaper -- Finding Form : Narrative Geography And The Country Of The Pointed Firs -- The Limits Of Freedom : The Fiction Of Alice Dunbar-nelson, Kate Chopin, And Pauline Hopkins -- Form And Difference : Gertrude Stein And Mary Austin -- Audacious Words : Sui Sin Far's Mrs. Spring Fragrance -- Art : Willa Cather, The Woman Writer As Artist, And Humishuma -- Plots : Jessie Fauset And Edith Wharton -- Slow Starvation : Hunger And Hatred In Anzia Yezierska, Ellen Glasgow, And Edith Summers Kelley -- Jumping Out The Window : Nella Larsen's Passing And The End Of An Era. Elizabeth Ammons. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 201-225) And Index. Liz Ammons's book examines the dramatic appearance, at the turn of the century, of a highly talented group of American women writers from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds. How isolated occurrences of talent coalesced into a virtual phenomenon, and against what historical and social obstacles women of the early twentieth century contended, are recurring themes of Ammons' study. Posthumous barriers exist for these women today in the form of literary obscurity; Ammons seeks to overturn these barriers and broaden public recognition beyond individual, received authors (such as Wharton and Cather) by demonstrating the abilities of their peers. With extensive inclusion of numerous previously neglected women writers of African-American descent, Conflicting Stories joins a highly topical debate, and offers a necessary revision of mainstream criticism's simplified reading of America's literary past Ammons studies the dramatic appearance at the turn of the century of a highly talented group of American women writers from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds, and in so doing offers a necessary revision of mainstream criticism's simplified reading of America's literary past.