著者

別府 恵子

出版者

神戸女学院大学

雑誌

女性学評論 = Women's studies forum (ISSN:09136630)

巻号頁・発行日

no.5, pp.53-66, 1991-03

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Since the beginning of history the family has been recognized as a central element in the social structure in any culture. In his book, The family(1964), William J.Goode contends that the family performs important services for society "such as reproduction, care, maintenance, and socialization of the young." Likewise, Margaret Mead expounds its raison d'e^^^tre that one's humanity is nurtured in a family, which is "the toughest institution we have." The American family is a transplantation to the American soil of the European model with the father(=husband) as the head and provider of this social unit. Ichabod Crane, Irving's protagonist in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"(1820), pictures his vision of a family as follows: "...his busy fancy...presented to him the blooming Katrina, with a whole family of children, mounted on the top of a waggon loaded with household trumpery, with pots and kettles dangling beneath; and he beheld himself bestriding a pacing mare, with a colt at her heels, setting out for Kentucky, Tennessee, or the Lord knows where!" This was an ideal"American family" congenial to the American imagination since the beginning of the Republic. During the 19th century in particular such a vision of a family provided people an incentive to move westward and people the wild west with a whole family of thriving children. In Irving's story Ichabod's dream of his family, however, was not to be realized. This paper is an attempt to clarify the nature of "American family" through an examination of its pictures portrayed in the four novels written in the latter half of the 19th century:Hawthorne's The Blithedale Romance(1852), Melville's Pierre(1852), Mrs. Stowe's The Minister's Wooing(1859), and Louise May Alcott's Little Women(1869). (The paper was originally presented at the symposium on "The Family in American Literature" for the 23rd Annual Meeting of the American Studies Society held on March 31, 1989.)