Deconstructing the savior narrative: The Brownings, agency, and their cultural afterlife
| dc.contributor.advisor | Sheehan, Lucy | |
| dc.contributor.author | Sifers, Krista Diane | |
| dc.contributor.committeeMember | Sorensen, Jennifer | |
| dc.contributor.committeeMember | Wiehe, Jarred | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2021-06-28T14:33:28Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2021-06-28T14:33:28Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2020-12 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s love story has quite the cultural afterlife. Articles describing their epic literary love often appear around Valentine’s Day, and there have been many fictionalized narratives re-telling their story. However, this project’s main goal is to show the problems with the Browning-as-savior narrative these narratives create. Whereas re-tellings might lead readers to believe that Browning or his love “saved” EBB from her life before him, close analysis of the Brownings’ letters and poetry complicate this idea by showing the complexities of ideas behind gender, power, and disability. These analyses show we should not buy into these fictionalized salvific ableist heterosexual narratives that require re- writing the past and controlling the future. Rather, this project seeks to influence readers to consider three things: 1) EBB’s disability and the numerous ways it affected her embodied experiences as a woman and a writer within her relationship to Browning, 2) the problems fictionalized narratives have created in terms of understanding disability, gender and power, and 3) the ways in which Browning and EBB slipped in and out of stereotypical gender roles over the course of their relationship. | en_US |
| dc.description.college | College of Liberal Arts | en_US |
| dc.description.department | English | en_US |
| dc.format.extent | 98 pages | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1969.6/89704 | |
| dc.language.iso | en_US | en_US |
| dc.rights | This material is made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to U.S. Copyright law. The user assumes full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used should be fully credited with its source. All rights are reserved and retained regardless of current or future development or laws that may apply to fair use standards. Permission for publication of this material, in part or in full, must be secured with the author and/or publisher. | en_US |
| dc.title | Deconstructing the savior narrative: The Brownings, agency, and their cultural afterlife | en_US |
| dc.type | Text | en_US |
| dc.type.genre | Thesis | en_US |
| thesis.degree.discipline | English | en_US |
| thesis.degree.grantor | Texas A & M University--Corpus Christi | en_US |
| thesis.degree.level | Masters | en_US |
| thesis.degree.name | Master of Arts | en_US |