• American Studies
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.83-97
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• 2020

"Behind a Mask" (1866) marks the new direction of Louisa May Alcott's artistic and personal life. Her European trip solidified her identity as a mature woman, most importantly as a mature American woman, one whose independence from Victorian stereotypes would, from now on, make her fortune and fame. Her sensational stories, especially "Behind a Mask," would tell truths that readers recognized but had rarely seen written. These truths would free them, and the author herself, to explore their talents as individuals. Henceforth, Alcott would embody the successful American artistic entrepreneur as one who shed the European domination of false titles and inherited wealth. These motifs of the transnational connection pervade the story, in the form of images and likenesses. Just as Alcott would soon, in two years, reach astonishing financial success with the publication of Little Women, her meteoric ascent parallels America's rise to power in the world's economy, which came about with almost alarming speed after the conclusion of the American Civil War.

• American Studies
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.137-154
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• 2021

Due to her successful novel Little Women (1869), Louisa May Alcott has generally become known as a writer of sentimental fiction. However, her thrillers demonstrate her keen insights into domestic and international issues. Alcott's so-called "left hand" shows her stances on political and historical issues in America as well as in Europe and Asia. Particularly, Alcott's supporting voice for women against social prejudices is metaphorically portrayed in "A Whisper in the Dark" (1861). Interestingly, in the story Alcott displays her knowledge of the drug trades and the cultural effects of white male colonizers exploiting other peoples and countries around the globe, which were issues that she had learned about from neighboring intellectuals and newspapers. In the paper, I examine Alcott's radical views on gender equality, chauvinistic attitudes, and transnational politics in the mid-nineteenth century.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.561-577
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• 2008

L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables is not only confidently labelled a Canadian classic but also placed as a national icon along with the moose, the beaver, and the Habs in Canada. Anne's 'Canadianness' is partly due to its location in the rural world of Prince Edward Island. The fictional Avonlea is described as the ideal space where Canadian spirit can interact with the personified surrounding landscapes through Celtic imagination. Additionally, the communal bond of Avonlea fully demonstrates Scottish Canadian identities. The Scottish national character of Avonlea is responsible for clannishness of the Cuthberts and the Lyndes. The disrespect to the French is also due to Scottish heritage in Avonlea. As an outsider Anne wants to be integrated into the community of Avonlea, and successfully adapts herself to the regional shared values. Meanwhile she partly challenges the strictness and rigidness of the born Canadian Avonlea residents. Despite its Canadian origin, Anne of Green Gables is accepted as part of the American canon of children's literature in the Unite States. The configuration of Anne as an American heroine is noticeable among American scholars: by relocating it to the US the female Bildungsroman in the nineteenth century America, a group of literary critics adapt Anne as an American girl for American readers. The heroine of Anne of Green Gables is linked to American novels such as Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, Kate Douglas Wiggin's Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and Gene Stratten Porter's A Girl of the Limberlost. Anne is even classified as another Caddie by American literary critics: Anne is placed at the center of Caddie Woodlawn Syndrome as another Wisconsin pioneer child. Canadian identity of Anne is intentionally excluded and Anne was reborn as an American girl in the U.S. In this context, Anne functions as a sign of nation and a site for cross-national identity formation.