Scholars' Repository

"She Can Write Boldly": An Examination of Self, Scholar, and Teacher through a Study of Thomas Hardy's Heroines

Turman, Catelin "She Can Write Boldly": An Examination of Self, Scholar, and Teacher through a Study of Thomas Hardy's Heroines. 2017. Radford University, Thesis. Radford University Scholars' Repository.

PDF
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution No Derivatives.

Download (497kB)

Abstract

In “‘She Can Write Boldly’: An Examination of Self, Scholar, and Teacher through a Study of Thomas Hardy’s Heroines,” Catelin Turman, M.A., explains how her personal and academic relationship with Thomas Hardy’s novels Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Far From the Madding Crowd has morphed as she has transitioned from a student of literature to a teacher of literature. Turman uses the criticism of Louis Althusser and Hélène Cixous to analyze the ideology of patriarchy within Hardy’s novels and to explore her transient relationship with her twenty-first century patriarchal society. She argues that Hardy’s heroines Tess Durbeyfield and Bathsheba Everdene resist and rebel against the tenets of patriarchy in their respective novels. Although Turman contends that Tess’s rebellion is ultimately a failure, she argues that Bathsheba’s rebellion is a success, because it results in Bathsheba’s renegotiation of the patriarchy: by the end of the novel, Bathsheba is able to live under the umbrella of patriarchy according to Virginia Woolf’s definition of androgyny. Ultimately, Turman uses the rebellions set forth by Hardy’s heroines, coupled with Cixous’s and Woolf’s criticism, to renegotiate her own relationship with the patriarchy and to argue that Hardy is a proto-feminist author ahead of his time. Looking forward to her future as a teacher of literature, Turman concludes her project by arguing that Norma Greco’s “lived experience” pedagogy is the most effective method for teaching Hardy’s novels in the classroom.

Item Type: Thesis
Subjects: A General Works > AS Academies and learned societies (General)
L Education > L Education (General)
P Language and Literature > PE English
Divisions: Radford University > College of Humanities and Behavioral Sciences > Department of English
Date Deposited: 31 May 2019 15:17
Last Modified: 20 Apr 2023 18:32
URI: http://wagner.radford.edu/id/eprint/392

Administrative Actions

View Item View Item