The Confusion of Gender Norms in the Civil War Literature: Louisa May Alcott and Other Writers

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25370274
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Literature in English
• Research Institution: Tokyo Gakugei University
• Principal Investigator: Saiki Ikuno 東京学芸大学, 教育学部, 准教授 (90294355)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 南北戦争 / ジェンダー / オルコット / メルヴィル / ホイットマン

Outline of Final Research Achievements

My research project aimed at analyzing gender related discourses represented in novels, poems, letters, sketches, and journals written before, during, and after the civil war in America, and clarifying how the confusion of the public order caused by the war influences the gender norms. Focusing mainly on the works of Louisa May Alcott, sometimes comparing them with those of Herman Melville and Walt Whitman, I argued the diviation from female gender roles and feminization of the war in _Hospital Sketches_, and the elements of the civil war romance in her sensational novel, _Behind a Mask_.

Free Research Field

アメリカ文学