The purpose of this research is to examine feminism in contemporary American novels. The plan of the research will be to set forth the context in which feminism has emerged as a principal driving force of form and content in the novels since World War II, and then to discuss the ways in which feminism as a major theme defines and marks the environment of specific literary fiction generated by or about women.
It would be a fool's errand simply to declare without discussion feminism a major component of contemporary fiction since World War II because although the war did much to shift popular culture and mores toward feminism, it appears to have acted more as a catalyst than as agent of feminist tendencies in American fiction. Indeed, there is compelling evidence of attention to (though not necessarily acceptance of) attitudes and themes familiar to modern feminists in much fiction and nonfiction written in the Victorian period. Further, American feminist fiction owes a good deal to its English counterpart, particularly in the early years of the century and particularly after World War I, which caused both social and political upheaval and which saw a whole range of issues related to women's rights come to the fore.
In short, in order to see where contemporary American novels are in respect of feminism, one must first see the fits and starts of both the novel and feminism before the modern period. The genesis of modern feminism is itself relevant in this regard, if one is to see where feminism is in respect of the modern novel.
The Enlightenment environment in which Mary Wollstonecraft published her pamphlet titled Vindication of the Rights of Women in 1792 was contemporary with the success of the American and French Revolutions. This first manifesto of feminism, produced in the period of the French Reign of Terror, was itself hardly revolutionary, if considered from either a modern perspective or the milieu of the American and ...