2026-09-18T23:56:50Zhttps://ecommons.cornell.edu/server/oai/requestoai:ecommons.cornell.edu:1813/1098112026-05-15T19:50:53Zcom_1813_35col_1813_47
Thompson, Brianna
Samuels, Shirley R.
McCullough, Kate
Caruth, Cathy
2021-09-09T17:41:06Z
2021-09-09T17:41:06Z
2021-05
ProQuest Submission ID: 12485
ProQuest Publication ID: 28491356
https://hdl.handle.net/1813/109811
https://doi.org/10.7298/vk14-rq55
15049389
204 pages
“‘the kinship of her pain:’ Intimate Healing in American Women’s Fiction” argues that in nineteenth and twentieth century American literature, women who teach each other about religion harness erotic power to upend patriarchal family structures. By attending to the nexus of theology, speculation, and homosocial religious devotion in sentimental and Afrofuturist fiction, I illuminate religiosity as a site of healing intimacy and the formation of non-heteronormative families. I organize my dissertation chapters thematically rather than chronologically, such that my first chapter on Phelps’ 1868 The Gates Ajar is followed by Octavia Butler’s 1998 Parable of the Talents. My third and final chapter returns to the nineteenth century with Warner’s 1850 The Wide, Wide World, and my conclusion addresses Toni Morrison’s Paradise.
en
Attribution 4.0 International
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
erotic
sentimental fiction
speculative fiction
touching
“THE KINSHIP OF HER PAIN”: INTIMATE HEALING IN AMERICAN WOMEN’S FICTION
dissertation or thesis
https://newcatalog.library.cornell.edu/catalog/15049389
application/pdf
English Language and Literature
Cornell University
Doctor of Philosophy
Ph. D., English Language and Literature
https://hdl.handle.net/1813/59810
Publication
Cornell Theses and Dissertations
Thompson, Brianna
5893a6ea-7af3-41d7-abc6-04bcd26ab5df
open.access
open.access
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<Abstract>“‘the kinship of her pain:’ Intimate Healing in American Women’s Fiction” argues that in nineteenth and twentieth century American literature, women who teach each other about religion harness erotic power to upend patriarchal family structures. By attending to the nexus of theology, speculation, and homosocial religious devotion in sentimental and Afrofuturist fiction, I illuminate religiosity as a site of healing intimacy and the formation of non-heteronormative families. I organize my dissertation chapters thematically rather than chronologically, such that my first chapter on Phelps’ 1868 The Gates Ajar is followed by Octavia Butler’s 1998 Parable of the Talents. My third and final chapter returns to the nineteenth century with Warner’s 1850 The Wide, Wide World, and my conclusion addresses Toni Morrison’s Paradise.</Abstract>
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