Consumerism and American Girls’ Literature, 1860–1940

Why did the figure of the girl come to dominate the American imagination from the middle of the nineteenth century into the twentieth? In Consumerism and American Girls’ Literature Peter Stoneley looks at how women fictionalized for the girl reader the ways of achieving a powerful social and cultural presence. He explores why and how a scenario of ‘buying into womanhood’ became, between 1860 and 1940, one of the nation’s central allegories, one of its favourite means of negotiating social change. From Jo March to Nancy Drew, girls’ fiction operated in dynamic relation to consumerism, performing a series of otherwise awkward manoeuvres: between country and metropolis, uncouth and unspoilt, modern and anti-modern. Covering a wide range of works and authors, this book will be of interest to cultural and literary scholars alike.

• Sheds light on the relation between girls’ literature and the rise of consumer society • Covers a wide range of writers and works including classics such as Little Women and Nancy Drew • Written in clear jargon-free style

List of illustrations; Acknowledgments; Introduction: \'buying into womanhood\'; Part I. Emergence: 1. The fate of modesty; 2. Magazines and money; 3. Dramas of exclusion; Part II. Fulfillment: 4. Romantic speculations; 5. Preparing for leisure; 6. Serial pleasures; Part III. Revision: 7. The clean and the dirty; 8. ‘Black Tuesday’; Conclusion; Notes; Index.

\'Consumerism and American Girl\'s Literature will be a welcome addition to undergraduate and postgraduate reading in cultural and gender historic studies.\' Literature and History

\'… makes an important contribution to the broader cultural history of American literary production … Stoneley\'s exploration of the fissures and cracks of these texts through a cultural analysis of the producer, the mode of production, and consumption is managed with a skill and fluency that is too often missing in academic writing.\' Modern Language Review