Acknowledgments
Foremost, I would like to offer my sincerest thanks to my thesis advisor, Dr. Ramona
Caponegro, for her unending support in the completion of this project, as well as for her
knowledge, insight, patience, and pep talks. With her guidance, I developed a strong sense of
ownership over this work, and I am grateful for her input at each step of the way.
Additionally, I would like to thank my second reader, Dr. Amanda Allen, for her support and
expertise that helped improve this project immensely. Working with this committee has been
an absolute pleasure and privilege. Finally, I would like to thank my family and loved ones
for the catharsis and encouragement they have provided without fail and for the reminders to
persist.
iii
Abstract
In opposition to a literary tradition of damsel-in-distress female characters, Astrid Lindgren’s
Pippi Longstocking, Louise Fitzhugh’s Harriet the Spy, and Alan Bradley’s The Sweetness at
the Bottom of the Pie provide examples of empowered, intelligent, and capable young girls
living in a mid-20th century environment and successfully subverting patriarchal norms.
Drawing on Laura Mulvey’s theory on women as spectacle, Hélène Cixous’s concept of
l’ecriture feminine, and New Historicist influences, I explore the common threads within
these post-World War II era texts. Pippi’s strength and humor, Harriet’s spying and writing,
and Flavia’s scientific expertise and detectival work illustrate their ability to bend gender
conventions and defy authorities and institutions that seek to tame them. With their
infiltration of spaces, fragmentation of the male gaze, and seizure of language, these heroines
set a precedent for readers to follow, and these texts offer possibilities for social disruption in
the name of female child empowerment.
iv
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments…………………………………………………………………………….ii
Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………….iii
Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………1
Chapter 1: Patriarchy and Pluttification: Pippi Longstocking and the Subversion
of Spectacle and Language……………………………...…………………………...10
Chapter 2: Harriet Spies the Patriarchy: The Critical Observer as Author[ity] in
Harriet the Spy……………………………………………………………………….31
Chapter 3: Through the Microscope: Flavia de Luce’s Investigations of Space and
the Feminine Gaze in The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie……………..………..53
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………...74
Works Cited………………………………………………………………………………….76