Analysis Of Gubar's Pen Is A Pen A Metaphorical Penis

“Is a pen a metaphorical ‘penis’?” (Gilbert and Gubar 2007,p3). Many critics in the western literary tradition gave had a similar belief for a long time now, before the feminist literary tradition came into being. Gilbert and Gubar also quote R. Dixon as “the artist’s most essential quality is masterly execution, which is a kind of a male gift and especially marks off men from women, the begetting of one’s thought on paper, on verse, or whatever the matter is”. (R.W.Dixon,1886). The poet’s pen has been for a long time continued to be seen as a figurative and even a literal penis. The counter criticism to this belief in the Western Feminist Literary Theory has been doing the rounds for a long time now, but the colonial moral policing that

A society which gave prestige and respect to the works of courtesans has itself created such social taboos against these women, that let alone their writing, but their very presence has become irksome to the common man and the so called ‘authoritarians of Indian Culture’. One such Courtesan who became a victim of this ‘morality’ was Telugu woman writer Muddupalani. There were many such women, who have lost their names from mainstream literary scenario. One may attempt a backward journey to the times of the prevalence of ganikas in society in order to trace a Feminist Literary Tradition.i.e a tradition of Courtesan

“that of the sexually liberated and educated courtesan or the pure, sexuallycontrolled, uneducated wife” (Srinivasan,2006,p161). Courtesans were the only women who had the opportunity and the right to learn to read, sing or dance. The uniquely cultured public women who were proficient in arts and were ‘endowed with winsome qualities” were called ganikas. Many evidences of the high cultural value and allowance of education to these ganikasare presented in works like “Kamasutra” and “Arthashastra”. In part six of Kamasutra “the legendary author, Vatsayana advises the courtesan to be skilled in sixty four arts that define a cultured person. He lists them all and the list is daunting. topping it are singing, playing on musical instruments, dancing, writing, drawing…in the aggregate, the sixty four arts form a remarkable portrait of the civilised and knowledgeable elite in society. In fact, the text states this by saying that when the vesya is proficient in these arts, and imbued with beauty, politeness and virtue she becomes a ganika”, and “receives a seat of honour in the assembly of men”; that is, “she can discourse with men as their equal”. “She is moreover always respected by the king, and praised by learned men and her favour being sought for all, she becomes an object of universal regard”(Srinivasan,2006,p162). Even Kautilya’s text, that dates back to almost 3rd century, B.C.,