Material girl : the subjective role of objects in Dorothy Parker's poems and short stories

UNCW Author/Contributor (non-UNCW co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Briana M. Spencer (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW )
Web Site: http://library.uncw.edu/
Advisor
Janet Ellerby

Abstract: This thesis is a study of the importance of objects within Dorothy Parker’s poems and short stories and how her use of material items as metaphors for the restricted roles available to women of her day simultaneously intensifies and challenges these gender-related limitations. The essay draws upon the tenets of feminist theory that call for a pluralistic reading of female texts and an appropriation of “feminine” items within a literary language, as well Karl Marx’s theories of commodity in which material objects serve the primary purpose of capitalistic exchange and Laura Mulvey’s study of pleasure- viewing in which women play specific roles designed for them by men. This study of how Parker illustrates her heroines through the material objects surrounding them serves to highlight her writing as an innovative subversion of the commonly accepted parameters for the women of her era.

Additional Information

Publication
Thesis
A Thesis Submitted to the University of North Carolina Wilmington in Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts
Language: English
Date: 2009
Keywords
Parker Dorothy 1893-1967--Criticism and interpretation, Symbolism in literature
Subjects
Symbolism in literature
Parker, Dorothy, 1893-1967 -- Criticism and interpretation

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