Coming of Age in Times of Epidemics: Laurie Halse Anderson’s Fever 1793
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36473/ujhss.v61i3.1682Keywords:
Bildungsroman, epidemics, fever, Philadelphia, maturityAbstract
The frenzy caused by the horrific news on the TVs and the social media about COVID19 brings to the forefront the catastrophic epidemics in the past that led to mass deaths and haunt the imagination of historians and public alike. Works of fiction often depict the disastrous consequences of these epidemics, both real and imagined, focusing on the gothic experience the characters endure and their struggle to survive the disasters. This article explores this major issue in a contemporary novel, Laurie Halse Anderson’s Fever 1793 (2000). It chronicles the journey of the female protagonist and her struggle to survive and achieve autonomy during the historical yellow fever that hit Philadelphia more than two centuries ago, which stuck to the memory of people to the current day.
Downloads
References
• Abel, E., M. Hirsch, and E. Langland. Eds. (1983). The Voyage In: Fictions of Female Development. London: University Press of New England.
• Anderson, Laurie Halse. (2000). Fever 1793. New York: Simon & Schuster.
• Anderson, Laurie Halse. (2001). “The Writing of Fever 1793.” School Library Journal, 47(5): 44.
• Burkham, Anita L. (2000).“Review of Fever 1793”. Horn Book, 76(5): 562.
• Felski, Rita. (1989). Beyond Feminist Aesthetics: Feminist Literature and Social Change. London: Radius.
• Gilbert, Sandra M. And Susan Gubar. (1984). The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. 2nd Edition. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
• Halberstam, Judith. (2004). “Female Masculinity.” In Literary Theory: An Anthology. Edited by Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan, pp.935-954. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
• Hill, Christine M and Laurie Halse Anderson. (2000). “Laurie Halse Anderson Speaks: An Interview.” Voices of Young Advocates, 33(5): 325-27.
• Horning, Kathleen T and Laurie Halse Anderson. (2009). “Fearless: Date Rape. Anorexia. Slavery. Is There a Topic That Laurie Halse Anderson Won’t Tackle.” School Library Journal, 55(6): 30-33.
• Labovitz, Esther Kleinbord. (1986). The Myth of the Heroine: The Female Bildungsroman in the Twentieth Century: Dorothy Richardson, Simone de Beauvoir, Doris Lessing, Christa Wolf. New York: Peter Lang.
• Lazzaro-Weis, Carol. (1990). “The Female ‘Bildungsroman’: Calling It into Question.” NWSA Journal, 2(1): 16-34.
• McWilliams, E. (2009). Margaret Atwood and the Female Bildungsroman. Surrey: Ashgate.
• Milne, Ira Mark. Ed. (2009). Literary Movements for Students. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, Cengage Learning.
• Murfin, R. and S.M. Ray. Eds. (2003). The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms. 2nd Edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s Press.
