Archetypes, Rhetoric, and the American Reader: Explaining the Success of Susanna Rowson's Charlotte Temple
Date of Graduation
Spring 1995
Degree
Master of Arts in English
Department
English
Committee Chair
William Burling
Abstract
Susanna Rowson's Charlotte Temple (1791) is America's first best selling novel, yet it receives little attention. Critics tend to dismiss the novel as unimportant, but this thesis argues that it does merit further study as an expression of our country's early culture, primarily of the split between the opposing English and American elements in that culture. The characters reflect the psychological stresses which accompany such a conflict. Analyses of the text written from a Jungian psychological point of view and from a classical rhetorical point of view reveal more clearly the role that Charlotte Temple played in forming America's concept of itself. In addition, the novel, written for women by a woman, embodies what critics now refer to as nascent feminism, that is, feminism presented as a subtext within the main text.
Subject Categories
English Language and Literature
Copyright
© Sally Ann Lemons
Recommended Citation
Lemons, Sally Ann, "Archetypes, Rhetoric, and the American Reader: Explaining the Success of Susanna Rowson's Charlotte Temple" (1995). MSU Graduate Theses/Dissertations. 287.
https://bearworks.missouristate.edu/theses/287
Dissertation/Thesis
