Date of Award

2002

Degree Name

English

College

College of Liberal Arts

Type of Degree

M.A.

Document Type

Thesis

First Advisor

Katharine Rodier

Second Advisor

Kellie Bean

Third Advisor

Janet Badia

Abstract

As a young woman living in Louisiana during the Civil War, Sarah Lois Wadley documented in her diary the fractured, conflicted perspective that was her experience as a woman living in the war ravaged South. Her writing is evidence of the confusion she felt as a result of the discrepancy between the expectations of Southern patriarchal society and her own needs as a woman. Wadley’s diary is a complex text similar to a novel in that it relates events through a construct that reflects her response to her reader’s/society’s expectations. From a deconstructionist perspective, the power of Wadley’s text lies in what she doesn't say.

Subject(s)

Wadley, Sarah L. - Diaries.

United States - History - Civil War, 1861-1865 - Women.

Southern States - Social life and customs - 1775-1865.

Download

Share

COinS