The wilderness within: American women writers and spiritual quest

The notion of spiritual quest as the quintessential American experience is central to both American mythology and literature. Within this myth, spiritual development is defined by a linear journey in which the protagonist gains increasing levels of autonomy and separation from family and community. Despite the universality which its central position in American literature implies, a spiritual quest tradition which mandates solitary flight from family and community is a tradition which pointedly excludes women. Just as few women view the quest motif as a pattern for their lives, few American women writers adopt this motif as a pattern for spiritual seeking.; This study explores alternative constructions of spirituality in the works of late-nineteenth and twentieth-century American women writers, focusing on works by Sarah Orne Jewett, Katherine Anne Porter, Zora Neale Hurston, Harriette Arnow, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Gloria Naylor, and Kaye Gibbons. Spirituality in the works of these women writers is most often located in community, rather than in solitude. It is egalitarian and non-hierarchical, locating the divine in the humblest of ordinary pursuits. The characters in these works experience a fluidity between the spiritual and temporal worlds which deconstructs conventional dualisms between spirit and body, heaven and earth, God and human. The divine is found in looking inward--to home, community, and the stories women tell in order to define their lives. Drawing on psychological theories of female development by Jean Baker Miller and Carol Gilligan, as well as the works of feminist theologians including Rosemary Ruether, Carol Ochs, and Naomi Goldenberg, this study explores women writers' creation of new spiritual constructs through domesticity, community, and storytelling.