Adopting America
Subtitle: childhood, kinship, and national identity in literature
By: Carol J. Singley
Publisher: Oxford University Press; Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Oxford; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 224
ISBN-13: 9780199779390
Subjects: Children in literature; Families in literature; National characteristics, American, in literature; Adoption in literature; History and criticism; American literature
Description: American literature abounds with orphans who experience adoption or placements that resemble adoption. These stories do more than recount adventures of children living away from home. They tell an American story of family and national identity.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 175-213) index.
Table of contents: title: Abandoned and adopted in a new world; title: Problems of patrimony: Benjamin Franklin and Ann Sargent Gage; title: Adoption averted in The scarlet letter; title: Plotting adoption: dependence and independence; title: Child saving, nation building: The wide, wide world and The lamplighter; title: Servitude and homelessness: Harriet Wilson's Our nig; title: The limits of nurture: Louisa May Alcott's adoption fiction; title: Charity begins and ends at home: Edith Wharton's Summer.