Summary Of The Book 'The Mad Woman In The Attic'

Women and Tradition: Conversations in Context

In the second chapter of their book, The Mad Woman in the Attic, (1979), Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar examine the relationship between female writers and literary tradition. Their central argument posits that female writers experience the “anxiety of authorship,” distress that stems from the lack of female precursors in the literary tradition for contemporary female writers to relate to for inspiration in their writing (Gilbert and Gubar 49). This disenfranchisement of female authorship is rooted in a literary tradition dominated by men, a patriarchal system that conforms female characters in literature to masculine desires, such as the poet 's muse. Enclosing women in such stereotypes make them feel isolated from literary creation, and it diminishes their sense of self-hood and creativity. The main battle for the female writer is against the reception of her from the male-dominated literary culture. Her fight is a “revisionary struggle,” engaging an old text with a new critical perspective and explicating its meaning in a different literary direction (Gilbert and Gubar 49). This critical concept will be analyzed through J.M. Coetzee’s novel, Foe (1986). The book retells the story of Robinson Crusoe through the perspective of Susan Barton, a female castaway who ends up on Cruso’s island. After being rescued, she seeks out Daniel Foe, an author who Barton hopes will tell her story faithfully. Gilbert and Gubar’s notions of