Driving Women : Fiction and Automobile Culture in Twentieth-Century America

Over the years, cars have helped to define the experiences and self-perceptions of women in complex and sometimes unexpected ways. When women take the wheel, family structure and public space are reconfigured and re-gendered, creating a context for a literary tradition in which the car has served as a substitute for, an escape from, and an extension of the home, as well as a surrogate mother, a financial safeguard, and a means of self-expression. Driving Women examines the intersection of American fiction -- primarily but not exclusively by women -- and automobile culture. Deborah Clarke argues that issues critical to twentieth-century American society -- technology, mobility, domesticity, and agency -- are repeatedly articulated through women's relationships with cars. Women writers took surprisingly intense interest in car culture and its import for modern life, as the car, replete with material and symbolic meaning, recast literal and literary female power in the automotive age. Clarke draws on a wide range of literary works, both canonical and popular, to document women's fascination with cars from many perspectives: historical, psychological, economic, ethnic. Authors discussed include Wharton, Stein, Faulkner, O'Connor, Morrison, Erdrich, Mason, Kingsolver, Lopez, Kadohata, Smiley, Senna, Viramontes, Allison, and Silko. By investigating how cars can function as female space, reflect female identity, and reshape female agency, this engaging study opens up new angles from which to approach fiction by and about women and traces new directions in the intersection of literature, technology, and gender.

Over the years, cars have helped to define the experiences and self-perceptions of women in complex and sometimes unexpected ways. When women take the wheel, family structure and public space are reconfigured and re-gendered, creating a context for a literary tradition in which the car has served as a substitute for, an escape from, and an extension of the home, as well as a surrogate mother, a financial safeguard, and a means of self-expression.

Driving Women examines the intersection of American fiction—primarily but not exclusively by women—and automobile culture. Deborah Clarke argues that issues critical to twentieth-century American society—technology, mobility, domesticity, and agency—are repeatedly articulated through women's relationships with cars. Women writers took surprisingly intense interest in car culture and its import for modern life, as the car, replete with material and symbolic meaning, recast literal and literary female power in the automotive age.

Clarke draws on a wide range of literary works, both canonical and popular, to document women's fascination with cars from many perspectives: historical, psychological, economic, ethnic. Authors discussed include Wharton, Stein, Faulkner, O’Connor, Morrison, Erdrich, Mason, Kingsolver, Lopez, Kadohata, Smiley, Senna, Viramontes, Allison, and Silko. By investigating how cars can function as female space, reflect female identity, and reshape female agency, this engaging study opens up new angles from which to approach fiction by and about women and traces new directions in the intersection of literature, technology, and gender.

Annotation Over the years, cars have helped to define the experiences and self-perceptions of women in complex and sometimes unexpected ways. When women take the wheel, family structure and public space are reconfigured and re-gendered, creating a context for a literary tradition in which the car has served as a substitute for, an escape from, and an extension of the home, as well as a surrogate mother, a financial safeguard, and a means of self-expression. Driving Women examines the intersection of American fictionprimarily but not exclusively by womenand automobile culture. Deborah Clarke argues that issues critical to twentieth-century American societytechnology, mobility, domesticity, and agencyare repeatedly articulated through women's relationships with cars. Women writers took surprisingly intense interest in car culture and its import for modern life, as the car, replete with material and symbolic meaning, recast literal and literary female power in the automotive age. Clarke draws on a wide range of literary works, both canonical and popular, to document women's fascination with cars from many perspectives: historical, psychological, economic, ethnic. Authors discussed include Wharton, Stein, Faulkner, O'Connor, Morrison, Erdrich, Mason, Kingsolver, Lopez, Kadohata, Smiley, Senna, Viramontes, Allison, and Silko. By investigating how cars can function as female space, reflect female identity, and reshape female agency, this engaging study opens up new angles from which to approach fiction by and about women and traces new directions in the intersection of literature, technology, and gender Contents......Page 8 List of Illustrations......Page 10 Acknowledgments......Page 12 INTRODUCTION: Writing and Automobility......Page 16 1 Women on Wheels: "A threat at yesterday's order of things"......Page 25 2 Modernism: Racing and Gendering Automobility......Page 56 3 My Mother the Car? Auto Bodies and Maternity......Page 88 4 Getaway Cars: Women's Road Trips......Page 126 5 Mobile Homelessness: Cars and the Restructuring of Home......Page 155 6 Automotive Citizenship: Car as Origin......Page 180 EPILOGUE: Writing behind the Wheel......Page 207 Notes......Page 214 Works Cited......Page 220 B......Page 232 C......Page 233 F......Page 234 H......Page 235 L......Page 236 M......Page 237 R......Page 238 T......Page 239 Z......Page 240 Contents 8 List of Illustrations 10 Acknowledgments 12 INTRODUCTION: Writing and Automobility 16 1 Women on Wheels: "A threat at yesterday's order of things" 25 2 Modernism: Racing and Gendering Automobility 56 3 My Mother the Car? Auto Bodies and Maternity 88 4 Getaway Cars: Women's Road Trips 126 5 Mobile Homelessness: Cars and the Restructuring of Home 155 6 Automotive Citizenship: Car as Origin 180 EPILOGUE: Writing behind the Wheel 207 Notes 214 Works Cited 220 Index 232 A 232 B 232 C 233 D 234 E 234 F 234 G 235 H 235 I 236 J 236 K 236 L 236 M 237 N 238 O 238 P 238 Q 238 R 238 S 239 T 239 U 240 V 240 W 240 Y 240 Z 240 Women On Wheels : A Threat At Yesterday's Order Of Things -- Modernism : Racing And Gendering Automobility -- My Mother The Car? Auto Bodies And Maternity -- Getaway Cars : Women's Road Trips -- Mobile Homelessness : Cars And The Restructuring Of Home -- Automotive Citizenship : Car As Origin. Deborah Clarke. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [205]-216) And Index. Description de l'éditeur disponible à l'adresse