Sentimentalni roman i transformacija uloge žena u postrevolucionarnoj Americi

Abstract

Although the pre-revolutionary and revolutionary period recorded significant literary activity in the form of pamphlets, political essays, poems, satires and dramas united in the struggle for independence, the peace that followed the treaty in Paris in 1783 marked the beginning of directing attention to some other spheres of life. The genre that experienced the greatest flourishing in that period was prose. Already in the first years of the early republic, American authors began to publish novels, initially as a direct imitation of the novels of British authors. One of the subgenres that recorded great popularity in that early period, and which largely participated in transforming the role of women, was a sentimental novel. This paper critically examines precisely this relationship between the development and transformation of the role of women and the emergence of the first female authors of sentimental novels: Susanna Rowson and Hannah Webster Foster, who insisted on the didactic function of their work and on the importance of educating young girls and women.