Nineteenth century American women may not have had the right to vote, yet Wichita State English professor Rebeccah Bechtold thinks they still knew how to smash the patriarchy. She tells us why on today’s Why Should I Read This?
E.D.E.N. Southworth’s 1859 serial novel, “The Hidden Hand: Or, Capitola the Madcap,” is a fun romp of a tale by a prolific, but unknown, American woman writer. The story follows the rambunctious Capitola as she navigates a world largely hostile to women. Early socialized on urban streets, Capitola takes on the men who want to control her life, from her boorish guardian, and the rascally Black Donald, the resident bad boy who hopes to win Capitola’s heart. In Capitola’s domestic exploits, Southworth rewrites the domestic novel, the nineteenth century’s version of the tradwife narrative. Unlike other domestic heroines of the same period, Capitola proves to be untamable – as she happily asserts, “I don’t know how to submit.”
