The limit of freedom: free love controversies in the nineteenth-century United States
| Author(s) | Minowa, Satomi | |
| Date Accessioned | 2018-02-07T13:31:44Z | |
| Date Available | 2018-02-07T13:31:44Z | |
| Publication Date | 2017 | |
| SWORD Update | 2017-11-10T17:21:43Z | |
| Abstract | The free love movement of the nineteenth century was one of the most radical and controversial efforts to reshape marriage and sexuality in American history. Hailed by supporters as a pathway to sexual equality, and derided by critics as the perverted cause of sexual deviants, free love occupies a fascinating chapter in changing ideas about gender, morality, and sexual rights. By illuminating public discussions about free love among both free love’s advocates and antagonists between the 1850s and 1880s, this dissertation demonstrates the extent of nineteenth-century Americans’ preoccupation with the notion of “free love.” Despite free love’s apparent lack of popular support, mid-nineteenth-century Americans across the country spoke incessantly about free love and its alleged influence on American society. What happened as the free love movement became notorious during the 1850s was that the term free love became one of the crucial components of political discourse. In this dissertation, I explore the way the term was discussed among different groups of people, what it meant for them, and what kind of work these contested discourses performed in American society at large. In doing so, I argue that the mushiness and intricacy of the definition of “free love” in popular discourses offers an important insight into American society and culture. ☐ My project makes an original contribution to historiography on nineteenth-century sex radicalism and wider American society primarily on two points. First, rather than focusing solely on the free love movement per se, my study also examines popular representations of their ideas in the broader culture. Second, this dissertation’s intersectional approach integrates race into its analysis of the conflicting meanings of “free love.” Through a contextualized examination of multiple meanings of “free love,” my dissertation demonstrates that free love, and thus discourses of marriage and sexuality, was central to political debates over freedom in the nineteenth-century United States. By doing so, it contributes to broader historical discussions dedicated to probe the interconnectedness of ideologies about gender, race, and sexuality. | en_US |
| Advisor | Davis, Rebecca L. | |
| Degree | Ph.D. | |
| Department | University of Delaware, Department of History | |
| Unique Identifier | 1022117397 | |
| URL | http://udspace.udel.edu/handle/19716/22687 | |
| Language | en | |
| Publisher | University of Delaware | en_US |
| URI | https://search.proquest.com/docview/1972035003?accountid=10457 | |
| Keywords | Social sciences | en_US |
| Keywords | Discourse | en_US |
| Keywords | Free love | en_US |
| Keywords | Gender | en_US |
| Keywords | Print culture | en_US |
| Keywords | Sexuality | en_US |
| Keywords | Women's rights | en_US |
| Title | The limit of freedom: free love controversies in the nineteenth-century United States | en_US |
| Type | Thesis | en_US |