Moving On: The Heroines of Shirley Ann Grau, Anne Tyler, and Gail Godwin - Hardcover

Kissel, Susan S.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 087972711X ISBN 13: 9780879727116

Publisher: Popular Press 1, 1996

Synopsis

Focusing on the works of Grau, Tyler, and Godwin, Susan S. Kissel shows how these writers portray their white southern women protagonists as “moving on,” with their heroines not only renouncing southern patriarchal tradition but actually establishing independent lives and caring communities. These authors are beginning to close the gap that has existed between themselves and black Southern women writers, whose protagonists have long shown that the strength and independence of female maturity must be synonymous with complete character development.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Focusing on the works of Shirley Ann Grau, Anne Tyler, and Gail Godwin as representative of changes taking place today, Kissel shows how white southern women are "moving on" in their fiction, with heroines not only continuing to renounce southern patriarchal tradition but moving beyond to establish independent lives and caring communities in American society. They are beginning to close the gap that has existed between themselves and black southern women writers, whose protagonists have long shown that the strength and independence of female maturity must be synonymous with complete character development. A background synthesis freshly discussing the work of Chopin, McCullers, O'Connor, Mitchell, and Welty leads to extended treatment of the novels of Shirley Ann Grau, whose protagonists, "keepers of the house", remain their fathers' daughters; of Anne Tyler, whose characters are "fatherless" and "homeless at home"; and Gail Godwin, whose daughter-heroines learn the necessity of autonomy. Further development is shown in a subsequent generation of writers, discussed as paralleling either Grau ("haunted by the past"), Tyler ("making adult choices") or Godwin ("creating new communities") and pointing to a continuing progression.

About the Author

Susan S. Kissel is professor of English at Northern Kentucky University.

About this edition

• Publisher: Popular Press 1
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 087972711X
• ISBN 13: 9780879727116
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 232