Gender Roles and Feminism in Louisa May Alcott's 'Little Women' (1868/69) and Anna Todd's 'The Spring Girls' (2018)

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2019 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1,7, University of Wuppertal, language: English, abstract: This paper compares Louisa May Alcott's 'Little Women' and Anna Todd's 'The Spring Girls' paying special attention to gender roles in the two novels. It aims to look at Anna Todd's retelling by portraying the change and development of the role of women and feminism in a period of 150 years. So, the main question will be: What changes and new issues in the role of women in America can be found in the retelling, 'The Spring Girls', which was published 150 years after 'Little Women' and how does the author, Anna Todd, deal with Louisa May Alcott's legacy? In order to answer the question above, the paper will start off by building a theoretical frame on the history of feminism and adaptation theory. Latter will firstly, define the term adaptation and then, focus on the general changes and their effects in 'The Spring Girls'. Next, the paper will continue with the main part which will depict more specific changes in the new novel, changes in the role of women and the perception of feminism. In doing so, it will focus on four different topics, namely, the home sphere, class and social acceptance, relationships and sexuality, and last but not least the new woman. This is aimed to be achieved by analyzing and comparing Louisa May Alcott's Little Women and Anna Todd's retelling The Spring Girls. The analysis of the stories of all of the four sisters instead of only one, as found in most research papers, aims to offer a new feminist reading of the novel.