{"product_id":"of-women-and-water-submersion-stories-in-eudora-welty-s-fiction-hardback-9781496863034","title":"Of Women and Water; Submersion Stories in Eudora Welty’s Fiction (Hardback) 9781496863034","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eOf Women and Water\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eSubmersion Stories in Eudora Welty’s Fiction\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eSarah Gilbreath Ford (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9781496863034\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eHardback, published 29 April 2026\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e272 pages\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 2.3 cm, 0.546 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\"Sarah Gilbreath Ford’s \u003ci\u003eOf Women and Water\u003c\/i\u003e uncovers a central pattern—with stunning precision and persuasion—of Welty rescripting the ‘Drowning Maiden’ across her career. Ford’s insightful slow reading, her gorgeous attention to Welty’s equally gorgeous detail, and her elegant reproduction and explication of Welty’s exquisite language make this book essential reading.\" - Harriet Pollack\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eToo often, when women in literary texts come of age, they die. Instead of entering an adulthood full of possibility, female characters time and again follow the path charted by Ophelia and drown, either literally in waters they cannot navigate or metaphorically in a society that does not allow them to construct their own stories.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Eudora Welty, however, rewrites this standard female coming-of-age story by repeating a specific key scene. More than a dozen times in her narratives, a young woman encounters a body of water—a lake, a river, a whirlpool, or even a rain barrel. In every case, the character’s submersion signals her entry into an adulthood full of possible danger. When the submersion experience becomes a spiritual baptism, however, the enchanted natural world can empower female characters to counter human social structures that tend to leave them silent, ignored, or dead.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In crafting these submersion scenes, Welty upends the power dynamics of perspective. Against the corporate point of view of a town, society, or family, Welty writes the individual, submerged perspectives of women trying to create adult identities not defined by societal scripts. By positing an ecofeminist reading of Welty’s fiction, \u003ci\u003eOf Women and Water: Submersion Stories in Eudora Welty’s Fiction\u003c\/i\u003e argues that Welty’s texts seek a narrative that will safely land female characters in adulthood with the agency to tell their own stories of confinement, submersion, and escape.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eAcknowledgments\u003cbr\u003eIntroduction: Dead Girls and Drowning Maidens\u003cbr\u003eChapter 1: Unscripting Genres in \"Clytie,\" \"The Wide Net,\" and \"At the Landing\"\u003cbr\u003eChapter 2: Submersion as Narrative Strategy in \u003ci\u003eDelta Wedding\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eChapter 3: Baptized in Nature in \"Moon Lake\"\u003cbr\u003eChapter 4: Swimming out of the Script: Virgie in \u003ci\u003eThe Golden Apples\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eChapter 5: Welty’s Ophelia: Submersion and Escape in \"The Burning\"\u003cbr\u003eNotes\u003cbr\u003eWorks Cited\u003cbr\u003eIndex\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"University Press of Mississippi","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52607745949976,"sku":"9781496863034","price":66.29,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/of-women-and-water-submersion-stories-in-eudora-welty-s-fiction-hardback-9781496863034","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}