Molly J. Freitas is currently a dean at Bard College. Previously, she was an English professor and led the scholarship program at West Point, the United States Military Academy. Her work has previously been published in American Literary Realism, Soundings, and Studies in the Novel. She holds a master’s degree from Georgetown University and a Ph.D. from Tufts University. She lives in the Hudson Valley of New York with her family.

• PrefaceAcknowledgments Introduction: From Subjection to Survival: The Artistry of American Women WritersChapter 1: The Artist: Edna Pontellier in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening (1899) and Ruth Raefsky in Anzia Yezierska’s "Wild Winter Love" (1927)Chapter 2: The Muse: Helga Crane in Nella Larsen’s Quicksand (1928) Chapter 3: The Writer: Margaret Aubyn in Edith Wharton’s The Touchstone (1900) and Zitkala-Ša as herself in American Indian Stories (1921)Chapter 4: The Icon: Estrella in Helena María Viramontes’s Under the Feet of Jesus (1996)CodaBibliographyIndex

Molly J. Freitas is currently a dean at Bard College. Previously, she was an English professor and led the scholarship program at West Point, the United States Military Academy. Her work has previously been published in American Literary Realism, Soundings, and Studies in the Novel. She holds a master’s degree from Georgetown University and a Ph.D. from Tufts University. She lives in the Hudson Valley of New York with her family.

• PrefaceAcknowledgments Introduction: From Subjection to Survival: The Artistry of American Women WritersChapter 1: The Artist: Edna Pontellier in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening (1899) and Ruth Raefsky in Anzia Yezierska’s "Wild Winter Love" (1927)Chapter 2: The Muse: Helga Crane in Nella Larsen’s Quicksand (1928) Chapter 3: The Writer: Margaret Aubyn in Edith Wharton’s The Touchstone (1900) and Zitkala-Ša as herself in American Indian Stories (1921)Chapter 4: The Icon: Estrella in Helena María Viramontes’s Under the Feet of Jesus (1996)CodaBibliographyIndex