부산대학교 도서관

Summary: Chapter one situates Davis among her contemporaries and in previous literary scholarship about her and establishes dialogism and its components as the theory to be used. Chapter two creates context for reading Davis through the fragmentary remains of her journal, her letters, and Life in the Iron Mills, in which she first broaches the themes of artistry, gender, social power, and imaginative possibility. Chapters three and four analyze Davis' female and male artist characters and their limiting encounters with their gender opposites who function as cultural enforcers. Chapter five explores the limitations of art through Davis' women characters who defy representation. Through them, she posits an alternative stance that melds the ability to create and critique into a powerful example of self-making. The final chapter proposes implications and further applications of my theoretical model.