Adventurous Women in Contemporary American Historical Fiction

Jeannette King is Professor Emerita of English at the University of Aberdeen, UK. Publications include: Discourses of Ageing in Fiction and Feminism: (2012), The Victorian Woman Question in Contemporary Feminist Fiction (2005), Women and the Word: Contemporary Women Novelists and the Bible (2000), and Tragedy in the Victorian Novel: Theory and Practice in the Novels of George Eliot, Thomas Hardy and Henry James (1978).

“King’s book is impressive in its gender analysis of these representations of valorous women. Adventurous Women expands both traditional ideas of adventure stories and the history of women’s role in the exploration of the wilderness and the building of the nation. In addressing both historical events and literary fictions, it provides a route into examining indigenous matriarchal culture alongside Eurocentric patriarchal tradition, tracing a canon of women adventurers whose exploits shatter the more familiar myths of adventuring heroes.” (Xiuchun Zhang, Contemporary Women's Writing, May 3, 2023)​

• 1. Introduction.- 2. Revisiting the Canon, Rewriting History: Sena Jeter Naslund’s Ahab’s Wife, Or The Stargazer.- 3. Domesticating the Wilderness, a Woman’s Mission: Jane Smiley, The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton.- 4. Women and an Uncivil War: Paulette Jiles, Enemy Women.- 5. Adventures of Body and Soul: Audrey Thomas, Isobel Gunn.- 6. Home and Away: Jane Urquhart, Away: A Novel.- 7. The Female Epic: Antonine Maillet, Pélagie: The Return to Acadie.- 8. Conquistador’s Moll or Mother of the Nation? Laura Esquivel, Malinche.- 9. The Female Conquistador: Isabel Allende, Inés of My Soul.- 10. The Legacy of the Conquistadors: Esmeralda Santiago, Conquistadora.- 11. Conclusion.