Abstract

Via examining such literature as Helen Dawes Brown's Two College Girls (1886) and Kelley-Hawkins' role model fiction for African-American girls from an American studies' perspective, Tarbox traces the clubwomen's movement that spawned some f the earliest works of adolescent fiction to validate public female communities as transformative agents. The author examines the movement's literary, charitable, social, and suffrage activities that made it part of the cultural landscape by the latter half of the 19th century. She concludes with the current trend to revitalize the collectivist impulse in such fiction as Maureen Holohan's Broadway Ballplayers series. Based on a dissertation at Purdue U. (date unspecified). Her present affiliation is unclear. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR.