Date of Award
6-26-2024
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
English, MA
First Advisor
Rachael Isom
Committee Members
Kristen Ruccio; Sandra Combs
Call Number
LD 251 .A566t 2024 W54
Abstract
Despite an increased awareness of human rights issues and more interest in intersectional feminist practices in post-postmodern culture, the imprint of the repressed housewife lingers. My research for this work is driven by two central questions: What themes connect the emergence of this image in nineteenth century literature and art to the current social conception of women? What role do men play in maintaining these conceptions and how do they benefit? As such, this thesis examines the last 150 years of women’s social progress and regress. In this analysis centered on Ira Levin’s novel The Stepford Wives, I seek to understand how the image of the American housewife has been shaped by hyperconsumerism, racial and class divides, and the ebb and flow of a patriarchal power structure in the face of sociopolitical change in Victorian, Midcentury, and contemporary American culture. Particular attention is paid to how the exploitation of women’s labor shaped the bioessential image of womanhood in the twenty-first century.
Rights Management
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Williams, Emmaline R., "Mother Machines: Deified Domesticity and American Misogyny in Ira Levin’s The Stepford Wives" (2024). Student Theses and Dissertations. 92.
https://arch.astate.edu/all-etd/92
