SexViolHist Bib: Representations: Literature: Jane Smiley

»Jane Smiley (born September 26, 1949) is an American novelist. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1992 for her novel A Thousand Acres (1991).« -- More information: Wikipedia

A Thousand Acres (Novel)

I n f o r m a t i o n

»A Thousand Acres is a 1991 novel by American author Jane Smiley. It won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction in 1991 and was adapted to a 1997 film of the same name. It was premiered as an opera by the Des Moines Metro Opera during their 2022 season.
The novel is a modernized retelling of Shakespeare's King Lear and is set on a thousand-acre (four hundred hectares) farm in Iowa owned by a family of a father and his three daughters. It is told through the point of view of the oldest daughter, Ginny.
Larry Cook is an aging farmer who decides to incorporate his farm, handing complete and joint ownership to his three daughters, Ginny, Rose, and Caroline. When the youngest daughter objects, she is removed from the agreement. This sets off a chain of events that brings dark truths to light and explodes long-suppressed emotions, as the story eventually reveals the long-term sexual abuse of the two eldest daughters that was committed by their father.« -- More information: Wikipedia

K e y w o r d s

I. Chronological Index: Modern History: 20^th Century | II. Geographical Index: American History: U.S. History | III. Topical Index: Offenders: Kinship: Fathers; Victims: Kinship: Daughters; Types: Victims: Child Sexual Abuse, Incestual Rape

B i b l i o g r a p h y

I. Author Index

[Info] Lin, Ying-Chiao. »Father’s Farmland, Daughter’s Innerland: Retelling and Recovery in Jane Smiley’s ＂A Thousand Acres＂.« Concentric 29 (2003): 95-118.

[Info] Rodi-Risberg, Marinella. »Trauma and its resolution in Jane Smiley's novel A Thousand Acres.« Reconstructing Pain and Joy: Linguistic, Literary, and Cultural Perspectives. Edited by Chryssoula Lascaratou et al. Newcastle 2008: 195-208.

[Info] Rodi-Risberg, Marinella. Writing Trauma, Writing Time and Space: Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres and the Lear Group of Father-Daughter Incest Narratives. Vaasa 2010.

II. Speaker Index