Semester
Spring
Date of Graduation
2014
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Type
PhD
College
Eberly College of Arts and Sciences
Department
English
Committee Chair
Dennis W. Allen
Committee Co-Chair
Dennis W. Allen
Committee Member
Laura Brady
Committee Member
Anna Elfenbein
Committee Member
John B. Lamb
Committee Member
Janice S. Spleth
Abstract
This dissertation examines the eroticization of female children in film during the 1930s as a mechanism for concealing troubling realities of the Great Depression in the United States. The repressed sexuality embedded in the plots of Post Hays Code movies featuring Shirley Temple and characters such as Stella Dallas, Dorothy Gale, and Scarlett O'Hara serve to suture over a crisis of masculinity triggered by changing roles in gender, race, and class. By attempting to invoke the image of a "little girl" in place of that of a grown woman, some films (such as Gone With the Wind, and Bright Eyes) do a better job of masking these abruptions than do other others (such as Stella Dallas and The Wizard of Oz).
Recommended Citation
Lantz, Susan Jennings, "America's Lollipop Licking Tease: The Eroticization of the Female Child in 1930s Film" (2014). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 461.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/461