A Senior Capstone Experience by Emma Reilly

Submitted to the Department of English

Advised by Dr. Katherine Charles

Contributor Biography: Emma graduated from Washington College in 2023 with majors in English and history and minors in journalism, editing, and publishing and gender studies. She worked for three on-campus publications as an undergraduate, serving as editor-in-chief of The Elm, managing editor of The Washington College Review, and social media manager for The Pegasus. Emma is currently working toward her MA in English at the University of Virginia. Her research interests lie at the intersections between feminism, nationalism, and transatlanticism.

Description: This thesis presents readers with a proto-feminist reading of Susanna Rowson’s Charlotte Temple (1790) that is primarily concerned with navigating occurrences of authorial, narratorial, and character authority in the text. Deconstructing Charlotte Temple’s strict positioning in the seduction genre, the paper argues that Rowson and her narrator promote pro-women sentiments by weighing in on instances of nonconsent, indecisiveness, and inconstancy. The thesis posits that Charlotte, in coming into her own as a decision maker, completes a journey toward self-realization.

Read Emma’s SCE below: