Table Of ContentAMERICAN LITERATURE READINGS IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Navigating Women’s
Friendships in American
Literature and Culture
Edited by
Kristi Branham · Kelly L. Reames
American Literature Readings in the 21st Century
Series Editor
Linda Wagner-Martin
University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, NC, USA
American Literature Readings in the Twenty-First Century publishes works
by contemporary authors that help shape critical opinion regarding American
literature of the eighteenth, nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-fi rst centu-
ries. The books treat fiction, poetry, memoir, drama and criticism itself—
ranging from William Dow’s Narrating Class in American Fiction and Amy
Strong’s Race and Identity in Hemingway’s Fiction, to Maisha L. Wester’s
African American Gothic and Guy Davidson’s Queer Commodities:
Contemporary U. S. Fiction, Consumer Culture, and Lesbian Subcultures .
Beginning in 2004, the series is now well established and continues to
welcome new book proposals. Manuscripts run between 80,000 and
90,000 words, while the Pivot format accommodates shorter books of
25,000 to 50,000 words. This series also accepts essay collections; among
our bestsellers have been collections on David Foster Wallace, Norman
Mailer, Contemporary U.S. Latina/o Literary Criticism, Kurt Vonnegut,
Kate Chopin, Carson McCullers, George Saunders, and Arthur Miller
(written by members of the Miller Society).
All texts are designed to create valuable interactions globally as well as
within English-speaking countries.
Editorial Board:
Professor Derek Maus, SUNY Potsdam, USA
Professor Thomas Fahy, Long Island University, USA
Professor Deborah E. McDowell, University of Virginia and Director of
the Carter G. Woodson Institute, USA
Professor Laura Rattray, University of Glasgow, UK
Kristi Branham • Kelly L. Reames
Editors
Navigating Women’s
Friendships in
American Literature
and Culture
Editors
Kristi Branham Kelly L. Reames
Gender and Women’s Studies Department of English
Western Kentucky University Western Kentucky University
Bowling Green, KY, USA Bowling Green, KY, USA
ISSN 2634-579X ISSN 2634-5803 (electronic)
American Literature Readings in the 21st Century
ISBN 978-3-031-08002-9 ISBN 978-3-031-08003-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08003-6
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2023
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of
translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,
electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now
known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the
publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to
the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The
publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and
institutional affiliations.
Cover illustration: beastfromeast
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG.
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
A
cknowledgements
We would like to thank first and foremost our contributors for their time,
ideas, and insights. We must also thank Md Saif, production editor at
Palgrave-Springer, who has patiently and compassionately guided us
through the compilation of this book. Western Kentucky University pro-
vided us time to work on this book in the form of a sabbatical (Kristi) and
an award from the English Department (Kelly). And Sari Shuler provided
able and expedient research assistance. We are grateful to them all.
v
c
ontents
1 Introduction: Navigating Women’s Friendships into
the Twenty-First Century 1
Kristi Branham and Kelly L. Reames
Part I Friendship as Identity 13
2 Entangled Roots: “Old Friends” Reconnected in
Ruth Ozeki’s All Over Creation 15
Marie Drews
3 The Gothic’s Creation of Women’s Friendship in
Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House 41
Megan M. Peabody and Mikkaila Poulin
4 Political Progress and Social Stall: Groupthink,
Smart Talk, and Mary McCarthy’s Friendship Novel 63
Cassandra Fetters
5 Girlfriend Epistemology in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple 85
Tangela Serls
vii
viii CoNTENTS
Part II Friendship as Support 103
6 “We Will Work Together”: Interclass Women’s
Collabships in Progressive Era Novels 105
Alicia Matheny Beeson
7 Fleur’s Kinship, Pauline’s Whiteness: How Colonization
Shapes Friendship in Louise Erdrich’s Tracks 129
Rachel B. Griffis
8 “What Obligation Do I Have Toward Her?”: College
Girl Friendships and Self- Actualization in Hangsaman
and The Bell Jar 149
Julie ooms
9 “The Tenderness of One Woman for Another”: Female
Friendship and Revolt in the Twentieth-Century
Works of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman 175
Susan M. Stone
Part III Friendship as Challenge 201
10 “Feeling You Near”: Georgia O’Keeffe’s Friendship
with Mary Callery 203
Linda M. Grasso
11 “These Sweet Trees”: Alice Walker, June Jordan, and
Womanist Friendship 239
Cheryl R. Hopson
12 Chicana Visions: Ana Castillo and Cherríe Moraga’s
Friendship, Falling Out, and Forgiveness 253
Leigh Johnson
CoNTENTS ix
13 Beat-Associated Women and Female Relationships in
Carolyn Cassady’s Off the Road 269
Josette Lorig
14 “I Prefer to Think That History Made Her:” Exploring
the Relationship Between Alice Dunbar-Nelson and
Edwina Kruse Through This Lofty Oak 293
Monet Lewis-Timmons
Index 321
n c
otes on ontributors
Alicia Matheny Beeson is an assistant professor of English at West
Virginia University at Parkersburg where she teaches writing and litera-
ture. Her research interests include American women writers, utopian and
dystopian studies, the Progressive Era, and literature and composition
pedagogy. Her work has recently been published in CEA Critic and
Reconsidering Flannery O’Connor.
Kristi Branham is an Associate Professor at Western Kentucky University.
Her research focuses on U.S. women’s popular culture, women’s work
and caring labor, and the ethics of care in higher education. She has pub-
lished articles in the Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice,
Journal of American Studies, Literature and Film Quarterly, and contrib-
uted to the edited collection Home Sweat Home: Perspectives on House
Work and Modern Relationships.
Marie Drews is Associate Professor of English at Luther College in
Decorah, Iowa. Her research focuses on representations of women’s lives
and identities in American literature, particularly in food-related narratives
and narratives involving the reproductive experience. Along with Monika
Elbert, she co-edited Culinary Aesthetics and Practices in Nineteenth-
Century American Literature (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009). At Luther, she
regularly works with students in the first-year interdisciplinary Paideia pro-
gram and teaches courses in women’s and American literature.
Cassandra Fetters is an Associate Professor of English in the Department
of English, Languages, and Fine Arts at the University of Cincinnati,
xi
