Document Type

Thesis

Degree

Master of Arts (MA)

Major/Program

English

First Advisor's Name

Anne M. Castro

First Advisor's Committee Title

Committee chair

Second Advisor's Name

Vanessa Sohan

Second Advisor's Committee Title

Committee member

Third Advisor's Name

Mark Kelley

Third Advisor's Committee Title

Committee member

Fourth Advisor's Name

Michael Grafals

Fourth Advisor's Committee Title

Committee member

Keywords

indigenous, popular romance, compensatory literature, women's literature, indigenous identity, white women

Date of Defense

3-31-2023

Abstract

Widely popular in the 1980s and 1990s, indigenously themed popular romance novels follow the literary tradition of white women writing about captivity at the hands of men of color, a tradition cemented in Mary Rowlandson’s original account of captivity in the early days of the American imperial project. By exploring two exemplary texts within the genre, “Savage Nights” by Cassie Edwards, and “Savage Ecstasy” by Janelle Taylor this paper contends that the indigenously themed popular romance novels fulfill certain compensatory functions for their white women readers. These needs include the revalidation of white femininity and the construction of faux cultural identities that allow white women to take on mantles of indigeneity and temporarily escape the nexus of domesticity and white patriarchy by engaging in sexual relationships that could perhaps be perceived as less harmful but retain white women within the comfortably understood roles of heterosexual relationships.

Identifier

FIDC011062

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