女性交易：德萊賽《嘉莉妹妹》與《珍妮姑娘》 中的白奴和交換價值

Abstract

In this project I analyze women as exchangeable property and their value as seen in Theodore Dreiser’s novels Sister Carrie and Jennie Gerhardt. I will also examine Dreiser’s life and world views, and their relationship to these works. Using white slavery crusades and narratives in turn-of-the-century America as my historical framework, this study, in an attempt to reinterpret the notion of “women in trade,” will focus on gender issues and female identity in the context of urban capitalism. I contend that women being exchanged and their reduction to property can capture and evince their state in social transformation, a discussion based on the rationale and political ideologies stemming from white slavery issues. Carrie and Jennie, with their seeming prostitution in the metropolis, not only manifest contemporary social desires and fears, but also indicate the author’s ambivalent mindset toward the consumerist world. Chapter one will provide an overview of white slavery and associated narratives in turn of the century America, and their relationship to gender and class issues. Chapters two and three analyze the texts of Sister Carrie and Jennie Gerhardt. I will explore women as personal property and how their market value functions in the novels in comparison to white slavery narratives. The span of the two novels stipulates Dreiser’s view onto capitalism, and thus this research will highlight the author’s personal life, particularly his relations with women. Additionally, I will examine Dreiser’s publishing history, in order to delve into the significance of women in trade in his works. In sum, women and exchange underwrote manifold valences that can help us examine and redefine sexual politics and exchange activities in response to the mechanisms of urban capitalism. These mechanisms motivated Dreiser’s literary creations and impacted his career, as well as reader reception of his works, from white slavery narratives to Sister Carrie and Jennie Gerhardt.