The Mixed Legacy of Charlotte Perkins Gilman

by Golden, Catherine J.; Zangrando, Joanna Schneider

• ISBN13: 9780874136883
• ISBN10: 0874136881
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-09-01
• Publisher: Associated Univ Pr

Summary

This collection underscores the contemporary relevance of Gilman's analysis of American society, the enduring value of her literary and theoretical work, but also raises questions about the limitations embodied and revealed in her analyses. These essays offer a range of assessments regarding Gilman's mixed legacy -- her vision for a truly humane, egalitarian world alongside her persistent presentation of class, ethnic, and racial stereotypes.

Table of Contents

Preface	9	(2)
Catherine J. Golden
Joanna Schneider Zangrando
Introduction	11	(16)
Catherine J. Golden
Joanna Schneider Zangrando
Part I: Five Ways of Looking at Charlotte Perkins Gilman
What My Therapist, My Daughter, and Charlotte Taught Me While I Was Writing the Biography of Charlotte Perkins Gilman	27	(8)
Ann J. Lane
The Economic Conundrum in the Lifewriting of Charlotte Perkins Gilman	35	(12)
Joanne B. Karpinski
``Letters Are Like Morning Prayers'': The Private Work of Charlotte Perkins Gilman	47	(6)
Mary A. Hill
On Editing Gilman's Diaries	53	(12)
Denise D. Knight
Historicizing Gilman: A Bibliographer's View	65	(12)
Gary Scharnhorst
Part II: Gilman's Literary Career and Her Contemporaries
``When the songs are over and sung'': Gilman's Childhood Writings and Writings for Children	77	(12)
Jill Rudd
``Dreaming Always of Lovely Things Beyond'': Living Toward Herland, Experiential Foregrounding	89	(14)
Carol F. Kessler
Rewriting the West Cure: Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Owen Wister, and the Sexual Politics of Neurasthenia	103	(19)
Jennifer S. Tuttle
Caging the Beast: The Radical Treatment for ``Excessive Maleness'' in Gilman's Fiction	122	(13)
Catherine J. Golden
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Edith Wharton, and the Divided Heritage of American Literary Feminism	135	(25)
Frederick Wegener
Paper Mates: The Sisterhood of Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Edith Summers Kelley	160	(15)
Charlotte Margolis Goodman
Part III: Re-Envisioning ``The Yellow Wall-Paper''
Overwriting Decadence: Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Oscar Wilde, and the Feminization of Art in ``The Yellow Wall-Paper''	175	(14)
Ann Heilmann
``[A] kind of `debased Romanesque' with delirium tremens'': Late-Victorian Wall Coverings and Charlotte Perkins Gilman's ``The Yellow Wall-Paper''	189	(20)
Heather Kirk Thomas
Part IV: Late Gilman: The Mixed Legacy
Reading Gilman in the Twenty-First Century	209	(12)
Shelley Fisher Fishkin
Select Bibliography	221	(2)
Contributors	223	(4)
Index	227