Description
Emma Goldman, prominent anarchist activist in the early twentieth century, is the subject of much scholarly attention. However, while the existing literature written based on the life of Goldman is vast and comprehensive in terms of capturing her political career, silences present themselves in a thorough examination of the documentation of her life. Biographers of Goldman often place her career as an anarchist organizer in conversation with her relationships with men, comparing her political ideals to the actualities of her intimate life. This thesis seeks to provide a new perspective on narrating the life of Goldman by centering her relationships with women, utilizing correspondence as primary documents. By centering women, I examine a different side to Goldman's commitment to anarchist ideals. To begin, I present my research questions, summarize and critique existing biographies of Goldman, provide a brief introduction to the genre of narrating women's lives, and address my use of letters as a research method. Next, I provide an overview of Goldman's life and political development, paying attention to the role anti-Semitism played on her childhood and adolescence, as well as the gendered aspects of her anarchism. Chapters three and four are case studies of Goldman's communication with Margaret Sanger and Alameda Sperry, respectively, providing an analysis of Goldman's correspondence with each woman in order to address my research questions. In my conclusion, I examine and name the relationships Goldman had with both Sanger and Sperry, offer a comparison of my results to those that prioritize Goldman's relationships with men, address limits of my study, and make suggestions for future Goldman scholarship
