Girls' Books and Fantasies of Growth

This paper draws on two 1872 novels for adolescent girls -- What Katy Did and Das Heideprinzesschen (The Little Mooreland Princess) -- as examples of how fictional narratives for girls help shape fantasies of... [ view full abstract ]

This paper draws on two 1872 novels for adolescent girls -- What Katy Did and Das Heideprinzesschen (The Little Mooreland Princess) -- as examples of how fictional narratives for girls help shape fantasies of nation-building. The construction of a new nation is modeled in the narratives of girls whose lessons in physical, emotional, and intellectual pain act as a kind of crucible, allowing what is best in them to be refined and burning away the insensitivity and awkwardness of youth. Katy and Lenore are better for their pain, and so perhaps can the United States be.