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No ordinary love heterosexuality and genre in u.s. modernity Asa Seresin
- Format:
- Book
- Thesis/Dissertation
- Author/Creator:
- Seresin, Asa, author.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Sexuality.
- American literature.
- LGBTQ studies.
- Literature.
- 0211.
- 0591.
- 0401.
- 0492.
- Local Subjects:
- Sexuality.
- American literature.
- LGBTQ studies.
- Literature.
- 0211.
- 0591.
- 0401.
- 0492.
- Genre:
- Academic theses
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (204 pages)
- Contained In:
- Dissertations Abstracts International 87-12B
- Place of Publication:
- Ann Arbor : ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, 2026
- Language Note:
- English
- Summary:
- No Ordinary Love: Heterosexuality and Genre in U.S. Modernity examines the emergence of modern heterosexual culture in American literature and film between 1890-1930, proposing that heterosexuality was often framed as unstable, anarchic, and pathological prior to the consolidation of heteronormativity. Drawing on histories of sexuality which show that heterosexuality was both a new concept and a specific set of practices - which included seriality, nonreproductivity, and a commercialized dating culture - the dissertation interrogates how constructions of heterosexuality were mediated by genre. Departing from a scholarly tradition that overemphasizes white, middle-class normativity as an intrinsic quality of heterosexuality, I show how heterosexual culture was shaped via a multidirectional set of influences, with a particular focus on the practices of working-class, black, and immigrant populations. Chapter 1 details how the harmonious and egalitarian vision of companionate marriage was met with comic representations of intimate conflict and negativity through a reading of the silent film Trial Marriages (1907) and Zora Neale Hurston's short story "The Country in the Woman" (1927). Chapter 2 introduces the concept of abortive heterosexuality to characterize heterosexuality's status as potentially nonreproductive via a reading of Henry James' What Maisie Knew (1897). Chapter 3 charts the rise of the commercial continuum of heterosexuality, identifying tensions between sex workers and a new cohort of young, working-class women who engaged in "improperly compensated" forms of heterosexual intimacy through an examination of the "Voice from the Underworld" column in the San Francisco Evening Bulletin (1913) and Miriam Karpilove's Yiddish-language novel Diary of a Lonely Girl, or the Battle Against Free Love (1916-17)
- Notes:
- Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 87-12, Section: B.
- Advisors: Love, Heather; Brilmyer, S. Pearl Committee members: Bentley, Nancy
- Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania 2026
- Vendor supplied data
- Local Notes:
- School code: 0175
- ISBN:
- 9798247973959
- Access Restriction:
- Restricted for use by site license
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