Plain and Ugly Janes: The Rise of the Ugly Woman in Contemporary American Fiction

This is the first study to define and explore the ramifications of a new character type in twentieth-century American literature-the Ugly Woman-whose roots can be traced to the Old Maid character of the nineteenth century, but whose current incarnation allows her the opportunity to rise to a level of power over her own fate previously reserved only for male characters.

"Ugly woman" stories undermine basic American cultural assumptions about the nature and value of beauty and subvert the standard role of the literature heroine, whose success has heretofore been dependent upon a combination of good looks, adaptability, and passivity. Being ugly, because it makes her undesirable or even repulsive, frees the female character from the emotional and physical burdens of family, lovers, and society-thus giving her unprecedented freedom over her own fate. Using this new character type allows an author to force the reader's attention away from the woman's surface value, focusing instead on her heroic actions and behavior.

Authors who have experimented with the ugly woman character include both men and women, and come from all ethnic groups. Included in this study are: Sherwood Anderson, Russell Banks, Djuna Barnes, Peter S. Beagle, Doris Betts, Sarah Bird, Ray Bradbury, Katherine Dunn, Louise Erdrich, William Faulkner, Tess Gallagher, Barry Hannah, Ernest Hemingway, Zora Neale Hurston, Alison Lurie, Lorrie Moore, Joyce Carol Oates, Flannery O'Connor, Katherine Anne Porter, Leon Rooke, Anne Tyler, Alice Walker, and Eudora Welty, among others.