English, Department of

 

First Advisor

Melissa Homestead

Date of this Version

5-2017

Document Type

Article

Comments

A THESIS Presented to the Faculty of The Graduate College at the University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts, Major: English, Under the Supervision of Professor Melissa Homestead. Lincoln, Nebraska. May, 2017

Copyright © 2017 Hunter Plummer

Abstract

This thesis considers the portrayal of the female journalist in the works of Elizabeth Jordan and Henry James. In 1898, Jordan, a journalist and editor herself, published Tales of the City Room, a collection of interconnected short stories that depict a close and supportive community of female journalists. It is, overall, a positive portrayal of female journalists by a female journalist. James, on the other hand, uses the female journalists in The Portrait of a Lady, “Flickerbridge,” and “The Papers” to show his discomfort toward New Journalism and the New Woman of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. These female journalist characters are virtually alone and are often painted in grotesque or hyperbolic strokes. Taken together, the works of Jordan and James reveal the wide range of opinions the public had about female journalists.

Advisor: Melissa Homestead

Share

COinS