Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Leaving Cinderella in the Ashes: The Self-Actualization Novel.

Leaving Cinderella in the Ashes: The Self-Actualization Novel.

Rohrer-Walsh, Patricia Jennifer

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Fiction Anthologies

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ISBN10: 1243504722
ISBN13: 9781243504722
Publisher: Proquest Umi Dissertation Pub
Pages: 288
Weight: 1.27
Height: 0.75 Width: 7.99 Depth: 10.00
Language: English
Literature proscribes and prescribes ethically. When stories reinforce a society's unhealthy prejudices, responsible readers should find others. The Bildungsroman has fostered the perspective that women are expendable, that coming of age terminates in adult identity formation, and that acculturation is the access to happiness and success. Cinderella is the current American companion tale for female coming of age. In both, male success trumps female success, female happiness depends on attachment to a male, adult coming of age is the end to human development, and happiness depends upon social acculturation. Such tales diminish females unacceptably. Although many critics have challenged the ethical merits of perpetuating the Bildungsroman and Cinderella agendas, none have proposed an alternative. This dissertation explores that possibility in the new genre of the self-actualization novel, a nomenclature highlighting the importance of Abraham H. Maslow's famous concept. Frequently written by marginalized authors, this genre avoids the pitfalls of the Bildungsroman and the American Cinderella marriage master narrative. The novels of Jade Snow Wong, Julia Alvarez, Lisa Alther, Ntozake Shange, and Fannie Flagg explore family, education, friends, work, community, and love as alternatives for enriching women's lives and their worlds. Although these self-actualization novels vary in their approaches to characterizing ethical females, they all promote a lifelong journey of self-fulfillment and social responsibility (Motivation 217). The self-actualization novels of marginalized authors offer great hope that all women can establish their voices and places---for themselves and for others.

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