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Abstract
Novels produce affective atmospheres, complexes of feeling that circulate through text and reader as characters try to maintain, (re)make, or endure their lives. If a novel tells the story of a life, that life is made comprehensible in no small part by representing the affects that accompany the processes of reproducing life: navigating social relations within and without family and other institutional structures, obtaining access to food, shelter, clothing, employment, and companionship, and squaring one’s values and life experiences with those of the dominant norms of particular historical periods, geographic locations, and communities. My dissertation investigates how Lynda Barry’s Cruddy (1999), Nella Larsen’s Quicksand (1928), and Fran Ross’ Oreo (1974) represent the affects that suffuse the project of life-making for young women and girls alienated from the happiness promises of twentieth-century America due to the interrelations of their race, class, and gender status.