The assignment from Dr. Logan:
Using your reading so far, course notes, and other materials as appropriate, list key issues raised by your selected text that are relevant to the study of representations of unruly women in early American literature. These issues could include genre, sub-genre (i.e. novel, short story, memoir; gothic, seduction tale, biography, etc.), subject matter (character, education, religion, crime, history, curiosity, etc.), and apparent readership.
Make a list of “keywords” for MLA and other database searches. Make your list as specific as possible, noting page numbers and specific language, metaphors, patterns, etc. (It might be helpful to consult the National Union Catalog Subject Heading list at the UCF Library reference desk.)
This is the list of issues, in alphabetical order, that I came up with prior to searching through the Library of Congress Subject Headings book (the red books behind the reference desk at the UCF Library).
- Commonplace book studies
- Delaware Valley, PA (during American Revolutionary War)
- Female homosocial
- Female literacy pre-Revolution through post-Revolution
- Feminist theory
- Friendship
- Lesbian continuum
- Manuscript studies
- Quaker definitions of partner, soul, bosom friend
- Quakers
- Queer theory
- Reading habits of the eighteenth–century American woman
- Trans-Atlantic communication, pre-Revolution, Revolution, post-Revolution
- Use of poetry by Quakers, especially women
While this list isn’t too shabby, it could be better. I decided to search through the Library of Congress Subject Headings, because after all, these are the headings used by all the database search engines. You can search through the subject headings online here, but I prefer to look through the book in person, especially since experience has taught me I’ll find so much more than expected if I do so.
These are what the "red books" look like, by the way:
