Girlhood During Wartime: Utilizing Testimonial Literature to Reframe Security and Vulnerability Through a Feminist Lens

Abstract

The field of Security Studies has begun to explore how women experience war differently from men, but there is still limited research on how girls experience war differently from women (Kearney 95). The English translations of the autobiographical and episodic writings of Anne Frank and Nellie Campobello document personal experiences of girlhood during war, revealing not only how conflict affects the lives and development of girls and the communities that surround them, but also how issues of war, security, and vulnerability have gendered dimensions. An analysis of the translated works of The Diary of Anne Frank and Cartucho by Nellie Campobello, using the frameworks of Literature and Girlhood Studies, Security Studies, and Feminist Theory, provides insight into how girls experience, interpret, and represent changes during war. Likewise, this research acknowledges the importance of considering the politics of place when discussing the testimonies of girls and the contexts from which they originate (Mitchell and Rentschler 3). Cartucho and The Diary of Anne Frank encourage us to think about security and vulnerability through a feminist lens. Both Nellie’s and Anne’s families/communities exemplify the necessary strategy, planning, negotiating, and care associated with “maternal thinking” (Cohn 54), allowing for the conceptualization of girls’ security outside of patriarchal conceptions of safety that only consider the public sphere once they are forced into the domestic sphere by war.