Date of Award
5-2025
Degree Type
Honors College Thesis
Academic Program
English BA
Department
English
First Advisor
Craig Carey, Ph.D.
Advisor Department
English
Abstract
Situated between the literary periods of American Romanticism and Transcendentalism, Margaret Fuller’s writings vary in their topic and medium, offering a unique fusion of literary style as well as a refined yet radical social perspective. Fuller’s work frequently employs flowers as tools for communication rather than as mere symbols, with flowers acting as transmitters of Fuller’s philosophical message in her many sketches and poems. In “The Magnolia of Lake Pontchartrain,” one of her most famous prose sketches, Fuller explores flowers in a nuanced way that exemplifies how floral representations function more like characters than objects in her work. While scholars have assessed the efficacy of Fuller’s feminist and political philosophy in her writing relative to her contemporaries, I argue that the basic function of Fuller’s prose, specifically her use of flowers, operates wholly unlike these contemporaries. Scholarship in the field of communication studies by authors Bruce Clarke and John Durham Peters provides crucial insight into the processes of communication as well as the variable nature of human interaction and social structure. These ideas, coupled with research from Michael Marder in the field of critical plant studies, reveal how Fuller contextualizes flowers to disrupt traditional modes of communication and create a radically alternative backdrop for burgeoning feminist ideas in the social and political sector. Her literary use of flowers generates an alternative, socially active mode of Transcendentalism that combines the natural with the intellectual to reflect and communicate the experiences of nineteenth-century women.
Copyright
Copyright for this thesis is owned by the author. It may be freely accessed by all users. However, any reuse or reproduction not covered by the exceptions of the Fair Use or Educational Use clauses of U.S. Copyright Law or without permission of the copyright holder may be a violation of federal law. Contact the administrator if you have additional questions.
Recommended Citation
McClain, Jenna, "Transcendental Blooms: Margaret Fuller and the Radical Language of Flowers" (2025). Honors Theses. 1026.
https://aquila.usm.edu/honors_theses/1026