The thesis of my paper is: The structure of eighteenth-century boarding schools, like the one depicted in Hannah Webster Foster’s The Boarding School, became a major asset to women and how they formed lasting family bonds and homosocial relations with each other.It differs from other scholars due to the fact that few scholars actually link organizations of today to ones of yesterday.Though there are differences, boarding schools exist today through other institutions, like the sorority.Both institutions help women, especially young women, gain the friends they need in life.
This argument works well in the paper through my definition of familiar things, such as family, and what that particular definition brings to the paper.The only thing I would like to work on with the paper is including more information about sororities and how they resemble the boarding school.I like tying in old ideas with new, so that is there I would like to extend things.
As writing research papers has never been a strength of mine, I went through a fair amount of drafts before I reached what I have now.My first draft was only a few pages long and had only my own ideas down on it, no outside information and no information from the book.It was the first draft, but I knew it could never work to even becoming the final draft.Still keeping one or two of my own ideas, I scrapped the paper and started new, this time adding in two of my sources: a scholarly article and the book itself.This draft was, of course, not going to work out either.I decided to re-research, looking up things and ideas that were only remotely attached to my subject area.
Finally, I hit on an article about sororities and the idea flew from there.I already had a nice chunk of paper written, so I reworked a few things and added in this new idea.Even so, the newest draft I have does not begin to cover what I would like to cover.Once the drafts started being passed around, I came to a block as to where to go with the idea.How to write more on it without deleting too much or going too off topic?This part of the drafts has always been the point where I get stuck and where I am never sure how to continue.In the conference, I hope to get some more information, see a new side to how others feel about this idea.
Reflections of Female Homosociality in The Boarding School
Butler, Judith. "Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory." Theatre Journal 40.4. (1988): 519-531.
The basis of Butler’s essay focuses on the female as a gender and how they become that gender.This is not only through genes and biological areas, but also the psychological and nurturing aspect.In this essay, it was pointed out her definition of the gender roles and how people are tied down by them.
Foster, Hannah Webster. The Boarding School; or, Lessons of a Preceptress to her Pupils. . Path: Articles and Databases; Evans Digital.
Foster’s second novel revolves around a boarding school and some of the pupils who attended.The novel begins with a manual of sorts, and the second half is filled with letters between the students and one of their teachers.This was the novel first looked at and where the idea of the friendships and how they relate to women came out.
Handler, Lisa. "In the Fraternal Sisterhood: Sororities as Gender Strategy." Gender and Society 9.2. (1995): 236-255.
The article by Handler focuses on sororities and how they shaped female friendships of this century and the last.It also uses sororities to genderize women and reveal the feminity behind sororities.Reading this essay brought on the idea of eighteenth-century boarding schools and today’s sororities.
Kahane, Reuven. "Multicode Organizations: A Conceptual Framework for the Analysis of Boarding Schools." Sociology of Education 61.4. (1988): 211-226.
Kahane’s article focuses on the basis of boarding schools and what they teach the students who attend.The article also explains certain topics and techniques such as student-staff relationships and multiple curriculum.Kahane also breaks down certain aspects of a boarding school into code, relating that code then to the readers.This essay was used to get a basic idea of boarding schools and how they helped society in general.
Levine, Steven B. "The Rise of American Boarding Schools and the Development of a National Upper Class." Social Problems 28.1. (1980): 63-94.
A sociological look at boarding schools and how the upper class formed due to their education and success.It also looks at not only the rising classes, but the rise of boarding schools and how they came to be in this society.Levine takes things step-by-step in breaking down how each form and combined.This was used as an informational essay to help further my understanding of boarding schools.
Pettingill, Claire C. "Sisterhood in a Separate Sphere: Female Friendship in Hannah Webster Foster’s The Coquette and The Boarding School." Early American Literature 27.3 (1992): 185-203.
Pettingill speaks on the friendships that are found in Foster’s two works.She explains what they mean to the women and what they mean to society as a whole.This essay was used to further the homosocial and family bond aspects.
Vicinus, Martha. "Distance and Desire: English Boarding-School Friendships." Signs 9.4. (1984): 600-622.
Vicinus’ article focuses around not only the homosocial aspect of boarding schools, but the slight edge of homosexuality.She explains how some relationships can lead to the homoerotic and/or just school-girl crushes.This essay helped to explain how friendships could go further, as well as used to help prove the argument of homosociality instead of homosexuality.
The full title of Hannah Webster Foster’s The Boarding School; or, Lessons of a Preceptress to her Pupils gives the reader an exact idea about what her novel pertains: the teaching of female students in a boarding school.More specifically, it is to give them mannerism fit for a girl in this time period, as the title page points out.There are several ways in which this novel tries to teach these young women, though only the individual can tell if it truly works or not.However, one of the strong points this novel radiates is the thought of the implied author.By using this implied author strength, The Boarding School can focus on the education and teaching of young, female Americans.We can see this working in two places: the title page and the dedication.
As most title pages were during this time period, Foster uses hers almost as a flyer for what her book involves.It contains information that most books in this day and age do not include on the front matter.The “flyer” aspect of it draws people in if they are interested in this subject, almost as if parents were to read this and think boarding school would be a good idea for their daughter during the time period.Not only that, but the author is simply “A Lady of Massachusetts” (Foster); this could mean either the implied or the actual author.Which one the reader decides to go with is up to them.
The language contained within the dedication begins with a direct acknowledgement of who this novel is geared toward.Not only that, but it includes that it is “affectionately inscribed” to these “Young Ladies of America” (Foster).It goes on as if it is a letter to the future student of this boarding school, informing them as to what they should expect.Furthermore, it is as if Foster is treating the implied author as the true author of this text, removing herself from the “author” position altogether.This brings the reader into the mindset that this novel will be written by a “professional,” a.k.a. a teacher of a boarding school.This technique of writing will bring the reader to where the text wants them: believing that this novel is to teach them to be better women (if they are female), or how women were taught to be (if they are male).
Though both of these sections offer much more than just how to teach young girls to be proper women, that is their main focus.The dedication comes directly out to say that the focus is on the education, while the introduction [give whatever].The implied author is much stronger than the actual author, given that Foster can portray the voice of a boarding school teacher with what seems like practiced ease.This gives the reader a feeling that this was in fact written by a woman teaching these young girls instead of an author that, most likely, only attended one of these schools.
Works Cited
Foster, Hannah Webster. The Boarding School; or, Lessons of a Preceptress to her Pupils. . Path: Articles and Databases; Evans Digital.
Pettengill, Claire C. "Sisterhood in a Separate Sphere: Female Friendship in Hannah Webster Foster's the Coquette and the Boarding School." Early American Literature 27.3 (1992): 185-203.
Abstract
One idea that runs itself through Hannah Webster Foster’s The Boarding School is that of female companionship.This friendship, created through rituals among peers, grew to what could be called a family between the young women.This family sticks together, just as biological families are to stick together through tough trials.When the young women enter into the real world, becoming true women in their own rights, their rituals they gained in school become letter writing, sharing their lives with their friends any way they can.
Pettengill uses Foster’s The Coquette and The Boarding School to argue a point on friendships and the affect they have on the life of a woman.Though The Coquette uses better examples on what happens when the friendships, or the connections through letters and other communications, fail, The Boarding School offers a look at how they may have begun between young women in the first place.While within a school and seeming to have no central plot, The Boarding School was written to further explore how young females gained their relationships that stayed with them through their lives, if they so chose to keep it.For Eliza in The Coquette, it is clear exactly what happens when the woman disconnects herself from her circle of friends gained at her own school.
In order to make her point more worthwhile, Pettingill uses quotes from various other articles about Foster and her two novels.She relies on summaries of both books to make her point as well.The Boarding School and The Coquette take place in a young woman’s life, but in different time periods of that life.While The Coquette focuses on the last part of a young woman’s innocence, The Boarding School instead views when that innocence is created among the young women.This friendship between groups of females can be defined as a social function, as it is part of their everyday life so much that it becomes a part of them and part of their social structure.
Within this friendship between young women, there are certain unwritten rules.The girls in The Boarding School never criticize anyone outside of their circle.They may mention others that were not part of their group in a negative way, but never themselves.However, The Coquette brings about change within that rule; Eliza’s friends are constantly being unsupportive of her decisions.Another rules seems to be that the girls must share notes with another.The girls in The Boarding School mention what another girl has done and even go so far as to attach a letter that had been sent to them.This can be pulled into The Coquette as well, since the end was told through letters not from Eliza, but explaining what she did.Most of all, there is a rule to always keep in contact, as that will keep the circle together and unbroken.Again, Eliza breaks this and, thus, breaks her circle of friends through her actions.
This essay has added a lot to my thinking as well as my idea on how to approach the topic.It brings both of Foster’s novels as a whole into the conversation, something I had never thought of before.If one of the girls in the school had been named “Eliza,” The Boarding School could very well be a prequel to The Coquette.In fact, it almost seems as if it should be a prequel.Foster does explore more female companionship in her second novel, and that allows a clearer picture into how deep her first novel proceeded.As a whole, these two novels together make a great point on people, mainly women, and how they live and interact with another.
One point that caught me was that openness and criticism (to girls outside the circle) mean a true female friendship.This was odd and it got me thinking of my own relationships with my close female friends.We are open to another and we do tend to harshly criticize those not within our close circle; I have been friends with them for eight years now.As Pettingill said, our routines help to hold ourselves together, no matter how small or slightly insane those routines are.This helped me gain more insights to both of Foster’s novels and how they can affect life today.
The argument, while focusing on The Coquette more than The Boarding School was helpful in gaining more information on how young women interact with each other.It helped guide my thinking to where it should be, not where it was, as well as brought forth new ideas that had not even crossed my mind.It brought the idea of family and how young women specifically find their true family, not just their biological one.
I would recommend this article to anyone who has a book dealing with a young woman as a main character.It will add insight to her and to the way she may or may not act around her friends and supporters in the novel.
![[The Real Pupils of...] The Boarding School](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_E0GyREsJIR4/SOgoVM12jUI/AAAAAAAAABo/HmJmy2mfwjU/S1600-R/BoardingSchool.jpg)
