A New Species of Girl: The Female Bildungsroman in Jacqueline Kelly's The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

Jacqueline Kelly's historical novel, The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate (2009), interrogates whether a young girl in 1899 can pursue science, despite the gender restrictions placed on her by society. This article explores how Calpurnia both follows and usurps the gender expectations of turn-of-the-century, American girls' literature, namely that the girls' bildungsromane usually ends in marriage instead of a scientific career. Because Calpurnia ends before the heroine is grown, the novel has unresolved tension, making its gender ideology opaque.