Stories of Female Initiation: Two 19th-Century Examples of Female Professional Success

Authors

  • Ina Bergmann

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5283/copas.65

Abstract

Stories of female initiation that lead to self-realization and independence have seldom been approached. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward’s "The Girl Who Could Not Write a Composition" (1871) and Sarah Orne Jewett’s "Farmer Finch" (1885) are discussed with regard to the causes of this neglect and the generalizing patterns of Elaine Ginsberg's "The Female Initiation Theme in American Fiction" (1975).

Author Biography

Ina Bergmann

Ina Bergmann was born in Glattbach near Aschaffenburg in 1971. She studied English and German at Würzburg University and the State University College at Oneonta, NY. She received her Degree of a Master of Arts from Würzburg University and also took the First State Examination for Teachers. Since 1998 she is working as an Assistent Professor for American Studies at the Institut für Anglistik and Amerikanistik at the University of Würzburg. Currently her main fields of research are the Short Story and Women’s Literature.

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How to Cite

Bergmann, Ina. “Stories of Female Initiation: Two 19th-Century Examples of Female Professional Success”. Current Objectives of Postgraduate American Studies, vol. 2, Mar. 2012, doi:10.5283/copas.65.

Issue

Vol. 2 (2001)

Section

Articles

License

Creative Commons License

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal.