Abstract

In the 1910s, Mormon women used sentimental speculative fiction published in official Relief Society Magazine to engage theological questions often reserved for male ecclesiastical authority. This paper examines three short stories: Edna Coray's "A Quitter–Almost." (1918), Lucy May Green's "A Whiff of Ether" (1919), and Laura Jenkins's "Beyond the Portals" (1916), each of which depicts a woman's encounter with the spirit world at the moment of death or near-death. Drawing on the Mormon Home Literature movement and the broader tradition of sentimental fiction as political and moral discourse, I argue that these authors used narrative to fill gaps in official LDS theology on topics including suicide, disability, the Word of Wisdom, temple ordinances, abortion, and the nature of Heavenly Mother. By embedding complex scriptural interpretation within a sentimental short story, these women claimed a rhetorical authority unavailable to them through formal ecclesiastical channels. Their stories represent a quiet but meaningful addition to patriarchal authority, offering readers experientially grounded theological possibilities that official doctrine left unaddressed.

Degree

College and Department

Humanities; English

Rights

https://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/