Women's Work, Part 1: Is Women's Literature...Bad?

Episode Topic: Is Women's Literature...Bad? 

Trashy romances. Sizzling beach reads. Chick lit. Fluff. As a culture, why do we describe women’s literature in the words that we do? In this episode, Chris Hedlin, assistant director and assistant teaching professor in the Sheedy Family Program in Economy, Enterprise, and Society at Notre Dame, talks with Ashley Reed, Associate Professor English at Virginia Tech and author of the book Heaven's Interpreters: Women Writers and Religious Agency in Nineteenth-century America, about the fascinating history of women’s literature in the United States and how that history continues to shape the ways people read and talk about women’s fiction today.

Featured Speakers:

• Chris Hedlin, Assistant Director and assistant teaching professor in the Sheedy Family Program in Economy, Enterprise, and Society, University of Notre Dame
• Ashley Reed, associate professor in the Department of English, Virginia Tech

Read this episode's recap over on the University of Notre Dame's open online learning community platform, ThinkND: https://go.nd.edu/37b365

This podcast is a part of the ThinkND Series titled Women's Work. 

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Women's Work Series and Is Women's Literature Bad?
• 0:00 Recommendations for 19th Century Women's Literature and Final Thoughts
• 6:58 The History of the Novel in the U.S.
• 13:57 The Rise of Religious Fiction and Domestic Fiction
• 27:27 Critical Acclaim of 19th Century Novels
• 29:43 Gender & Race
• 34:17 The Challenge of Defining 'Good' Literature
• 41:36 19th Century Literary Ecosystem and Family Bonding