Nancy Rosoff, Rutgers University, Camden
Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania
Time: 12:00 p.m.
Place: 2U Conference Room, Room 2019, Claire Fagin Hall
Information: nhistory@nursing.upenn.edu or 215-898-4502
Abstract: This paper reflects upon two key aspects of the nursing novels: the decision to become a nurse and subsequent entry into nursing laid out in the early chapters of each novel, and a discussion of the inevitable romance that was, and is, essential in any fictional depiction of hospital life. In this paper, Rosoff uses the notion of equilibrium between work and home to explore how a transnational analysis demonstrates the way that the performance of ideal femininity served simultaneously to confirm women's significance within the rebuilding of the nation and to reveal how a universal womanhood, drawing on the apparently natural characteristics of duty, caring, nurturing, and obedience, could transcend national boundaries moving toward an ideal of global gendered citizenship.