MARGIT SANDEMO’S CONTRIBUTION TO WOMEN’S WRITING
In the history of literature, motif of femininity had always played a significant role, starting from old pagan tales, biblical parables, through medieval stories about princesses in castles, ending on modern literature. However, it always portrayed only a piece of womanhood – feminine figure was often a mother, patroness, a loyal company for man. As seen mainly in poetry, woman was a lover, an object of desire. All this schemes seen in previous literature was not a full representation of femininity, which was caused by lack of female writers. As we can read in Hélène Cixous 1976 work “The laugh of the Medusa” that woman must write herself: must write about woman and bring woman to writing.
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Moreover, she managed to include a very part of herself in her books, for instance her worldview, supernatural themes but also personal experiences such as rape. She had an uncanny strength to share her brutal encounter of dark and violent part of life in case of support for her readers. That is the real purpose in women’s writing, to provide help and support for women, but also great encouragement. Many women, were extremely touched by how relatable her works are and they shared their admiration for her creation.
There are a couple of strong, independent female characters pictured in “The Legend of Ice People”. Margit, using woman on her writing showed us a story of womanhood through the ages, where being a woman was a constant battle with inequality, harassment and supremacy of man. But this can be not only a history of empowering of woman, but also can be seen as a spiritual journey that every woman must face in her life, to understand the essence of femininity. A good example of brave female figure is the first woman we meet in the first part of the series –
To be able to talk about heroes, gender, and Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey, there needs to be a separation between the journey to become a hero and the plot of the story. Although an entire story can be solely based on “The Hero’s Journey,” it’s not limited to the journey. How events play out and character development among other things are apart from what Campbell describes. The journey he describes stays the same regardless of the gender of the protagonist. Gender can only affect the plot itself depending on type of world that is built.
Castellanos was joined by other feminists and writers of her era, who always encouraged women to write about women. She thought that only a woman could successfully and accurately project the thought and emotions of a women. It was commonly felt that men’s portrayal of women was superficial and insulting as it focused purely on appearance and their own idyllic views on what a woman should be, look and act like. ‘Negotiation of gender is a part of that fragmentation, in that the re-writing of women by men makes them nothing more than ‘acesario inventado por la imaginacion
After skimming through Volume 1 of The Norton Anthology Literature by Women, I noticed the reoccurring themes of patriarchy, women subordination, and the strength to be creative despite oppression. During the times that these literary pieces were written, women were constantly battling the patriarchy in order to get basic rights. During the earlier time periods, intelligence was seen as a sign of an evil spirit in a woman, resulting in miniscule amounts of literary works written by women. Women were not provided with equal spaces to creatively express themselves, as mentioned by Virginia Woolf. Moreover, they were not given the same publishing opportunities, many women either went anonymous or by a fake male name to have their works published.
Perrault, a 17th century French author, wrote about women as damsels in distress in his fairy tales, while Atwood, a 20th and 21st century Canadian author, offers a more realistic and modern approach in her writing. Sharon Wilson, author of the essay “Margaret Atwood and the Fairy Tale: Postmodern Revisioning In Recent Texts”, calls Atwood’s use of fairy tales to talk about current issues in society as “meta-fairy tales”. Atwood’s “meta-fairy tales” offer insight on gender politics in a current patriarchal society. Instead of using generic conventions to tell her story, like Perrault does, Atwood uses them and then dismantles them in order to show the reader the problems within the genre like she does in her poem.
In our present generation, the idea of a separation between men and women really is not considered. We live in a culture where a person gets to choose sexual orientation, sexual preference, and even alter sex chromosomes. Due to of the advancement in our science, sociology, and psychology, sexism is arguably obsolete. I say all of that and an educated reader may be thinking “This girl is so wrong and has no clue what she is talking about because sexism does exist.” Well, it does, but not in the same way that it existed in medieval times.
Throughout history, women have been oppressed and not viewed as equals to men. Orleanna Price and her daughters in the book, The Poisonwood Bible, are no strangers to being oppressed and molded into the role of a perfect woman and a perfect wife. Throughout this story, the girls’ femininity often gets rejected, often by their society and the society in the Congo, and even by their own father, Nathan Price. Orleanna Price, Nathan’s wife, has lived her life living in her husband’s shadow for years. Orleanna has been conquered by Nathan, in the sense that he overtook her and now controls her.
Equality of genders is a basic human right that all should posses. However, in the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini, the reader explores Afghanistan’s true nature of extreme gender inequality towards women and how it affects all the characters within the novel. The novel explores how within a marriage, women have unequal rights, undergo major amounts of physical abuse, and are emotionally and mentally tormented by their very own supposedly beloved husbands. A marriage is defined as a union of two people as partners in a personal relationship.
Chronicle of a Death Foretold is a satirical novel written by esteemed Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez, published in 1981. Originally written in Spanish, the novel was translated into English by Gregory Rabassa in 1982. The novel, set in 1950s Colombia, outlines the events surrounding the Vicario brothers’ murder of Santiago Nasar, a man accused of taking the virginity of their sister, Angela Vicario. The novel is written in a pseudo-journalistic, non-sequential reconstruction of events by the narrator. The narrator is a journalist and old friend of Santiago Nasar returning to the small town in which the events of the novel take place, intending to unravel the mystery surrounding the murder.
Term gender role is described as a set of social norms of what types of behaviors are generally considered acceptable, appropriate or desirable for a person based on their sex ussualy centered around opposing conceptions of femininity and masculinity. Gender roles traditionally were often divided into distinct feminine and masculine gender roles, until especially the twentieth century when these roles diversified into many different acceptable male or female roles in modernized countries throughout the world. Gender roles are closely linked with gender stereotypes.
She voices women’s loss of power over their bodies and economies. And how they became trapped in the their own household. Medea explains, “With an excess of wealth it is required/ For us to buy a husband” and notes to not take a “master” is worse (L 232-234). Here she passionately speaks out against the injustices she faces as a women.
The portrayal and role depicted in the literature helped women in the long run to gain acceptance and equality in society. The literary contributions made and for women continue to be a springboard for women to gain equality to men. Finally, the accomplishment of these women writers who struggled to publish their fragile poems and stories could spread a template for other women around the word on how they can actually voice out their thoughts and help improve their own rights. Thus, women will continue to gain equality and recognition, and this success will also continuously impact the
With that purpose in mind, she revises some aspects of women’s place/absence in history, society, and literature and mixed it with some fiction in order to explain how she came to adopt that thesis. For example, she asks herself what would have happened if Shakespeare had had a sister
The role of women in literature crosses many broad spectrums in works of the past and present. Women are often portrayed as weak and feeble individuals that submit to the situations around them, but in many cases women are shown to be strong, independent individuals. This is a common theme that has appeared many times in literature. Across all literature, there is a common element that causes the suffering and pain of women. This catalyst, the thing that initiates the suffering of women, is essentially always in the form of a man.
She finds that women are currently writing nearly as many books as men, on all kinds of subjects, such as economics and philosophy, “which a generation ago no woman could have touched“. So, to explore current novels and to see what kind of changes occurred in
This novel is also autobiographical. Throughout history, women have been locked in a struggle to free themselves from the borderline that separates and differentiate themselves from men. In many circles, it is agreed that the battleground for this struggle and fight exists in literature. In a