The Alnerican Novel and the Question of Women's Equality in the Late 19th Century

Abstract

The study explores the question of women's equality in the late 19th-century American novel and society through the lenses of New Historicism, Reader Response (Reception History), and (American) Feminism. From the vast world of American literature, the study focuses on four American novelists: Louisa May Alcott, Henry James, Kate Chopin, and Theodore Dreiser, specifically on their magnum opuses-Little Women, The Portrait of a Lady, The Awakening, and Sister Carrie-: that address the question of women's equality from many nuanced angles. Primarily, the study hinges on how the four writers, who were already grappling with the emergent feminist movement, were influenced by injustices to women. These writers were inspired to shape their novels to both reflect and critique Victorian constraints on women. After considering the lukewarm public responses to the universal theme of these authors, the study gauges how these novels contributed to changing the position of American women in tem1S of social, personal, sexual, economic, and political equality in late 19th-and early 20th-century. Collectively, the four novels, step-by-step, advance/d the cause of women's equality as the literary progenitors of American Feminism with their protagonists' multi-faceted notions of liberty, contributing their share in laying the base for the upcoming waves of Feminism. Literary pieces like these have helped transform American social institutions, making America the capital of global attention for women's rights. Like the 19th -century critics, modem-day readers feel that these novels illustrate a powerful call for women's equality both inside and outside the U.S. Finally, these novels could inspire (literary) writers in Pakistanparticularly in Pashtun belt, where women's lack of equal rights is the most buming and critical issue- to address women's rights as a means to create a fertile ground for gender equality.