The Representation of the New Woman in Nineteenth-Century and Twentieth-Century American Literature

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I have analyzed the representation of the New Woman in American literature as a discourse on the situation of American women in terms of perceptions of gender. This nineteenth-century and twentieth-century discourse is a political discussion between those opposed to men's definition of gender and those seeking to maintain the status quo. Consequently, the representation of the New Woman during this time becomes diverse.For example, Henry James is critical of the New Woman, though ambivalent in the way he depicts her, while Constance Fenimore Woolson resists his depiction ambiguously. Edith Wharton develops, instead of the New Woman, a heroine bound by "femininity," and criticizes the status quo. Willa Cather and Ellen Glasgow create the New Woman struggling against barren land, while male authors, such as Sherwood Anderson and Sinclair Lewis, depict New Women who try to acquire self-determination in Midwest towns.The discourse about the New Woman could be turned into a discussion on race. The first New Woman was defined as a white, college-educated woman supporting suffrage. Then, those with different experiences created their own version of the New Woman, forcing the term to be redefined. The New Woman created by African-American woman writers such as Pauline Hopkins and Jessie Fauset are examples of this type. Their New Women's concern is not women's right but the uplifting of their race. To them, the white New Woman is a racist for putting the highest priority on winning women's rights. As Elizabeth Ammons argues, the white New Woman's acquisition of rights equal to men's means that she agrees to participate in a policy of aggression and racism that Ammons identifies with white males. Thus, with authors drawing on their own personal, political, cultural, and ethnic biases, the representation of the New Woman becomes diverse.