Girls' Series Fiction and American Popular Culture

LuElla D’Amico is assistant professor of English and director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at Whitworth University.

• 1. “Louisa May Alcott’s Theater of Time” Marlowe Daly-Galeano, Lewis-Clark State University2. “Queering the Katy Series: Disability, Emotion, and Imagination in the Novels of Susan Coolidge.”Eva Lupold, Rutgers University-Camden3. “Working Girl: The Value of Girl Labor in The Five Little Peppers Book Series” Christiane E. Farnan, Siena College4. “‘A Spectacle of Girls: L. Frank Baum, Women Reporters, and the Man Behind the Screen in Early Twentieth-Century America” Paige Gray, University of Southern Mississippi5. “Nancy Drew’s Shadow: Trixie Belden and a Case for Imperfection” Michael Cornelius, Wilson College6. The Bob-Whites of the Belden-Wheeler Detective Agency: Gender, Class, and Race in the Trixie Belden series, 1948-1986” Carolyn Cocca, State University of New York, College at Old Westbury7. “Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden: Girl Detectives, Role Models, and Feminist Icons”Nichole Bogarosh, Whitworth University8. “Cherry Ames: A New Woman for the 1940s” Linda

Part of the Children and Youth in Popular Culture Series, LuElla D’Amico’s collection aims to open up spaces for further academic work that both validates girls’ reading experiences and critically analyzes historical and contemporary girls’ series…. Common themes of identity, community, and femininity are woven throughout the chapters, as authors illuminate the historic evolution of American girlhood through the examination of popular girls’ series fiction…. These chapters note the possibilities and real-world implications for girls’ series fiction, enforcing the significance of both this collection and the wider field of girlhood studies…. D’Amico has provided the necessary addition to critical analyses looking at American history, popular culture, and feminism that not only celebrates the experiences of many girl readers throughout history but also critically interrogates the ways in which series fiction has both reflected and shaped American culture and American girlhood.