ABSTRACT
Nineteenth-century American clubwomen contribute to the history of what Anne Ruggles Gere has termed “the extracurriculum of composition,” where “writing can make a difference in individual and community life” (78). In the accepted histories of English departments before the turn of the century, the extracurriculum, as Gere recognizes, is “solely a white male enterprise” (79), with literary societies and clubs at women’s colleges and urban settings receiving no attention. “In addition,” Gere argues, “each of these narratives positions the extracurriculum as a way-station on the route toward a fully professionalized academic department,” with the express purpose of institutionalizing English studies, rather than the broader, civically oriented goals of bettering society. Gere’s method in researching the study of clubs and writing groups is “to uncouple composition and schooling,” so that for her, the extracurriculum “is constructed by desire, by the aspirations and imaginations of its participants. It posits writing as an action undertaken by motivated individuals who frequently see it as having social and economic consequences” (80).
