“Love and Self-Love”: The Balance between Sympathy and Self-Respect in Louisa May Alcott’s Early Fiction

This paper explores one of the early short stories by Louisa May Alcott in order to offer an example of a problem that plagued women in 19th century America, wanting to thrive both in the domestic and in the public spheres. By focusing on “Love and Self-Love,” an early short story, the paper highlig...

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שמור ב:
מידע ביבליוגרפי
הוצא לאור ב:URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ejas,
מחבר ראשי: Azcárate, Asun López-Varela
פורמט: Article ou chapitre numérique
שפה:Anglais
יצא לאור: European journal of American studies 2022
נושאים:
גישה מקוונת:Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM
Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM
תיאור
סיכום:This paper explores one of the early short stories by Louisa May Alcott in order to offer an example of a problem that plagued women in 19th century America, wanting to thrive both in the domestic and in the public spheres. By focusing on “Love and Self-Love,” an early short story, the paper highlights one of the major concerns at the time of the emergence of the first proto-feminist movements: the balance between women’s inclination to sympathy for others and their own self-esteem. The plot revolves around self-respect and stages forms of female empowerment by using fiction as a form of education oriented towards creating awareness in the public sphere.