Anna Livia Plurabelle: The Lost Truth of Feminine Subjectivity
The oppressed, repressed, and impressed subjectivity of feminism finds a new opportunity to assert its true self against the stultifying atmosphere of modernism and identity-oriented crisis of postmodern ambience by appealing to the unique characterization of Anna Livia Plurabelle which frequently oscillates phallocentrism and proves the me'connaissance of male selfism and female-otherness to establish a new doctrine based on the fact that the male subjectivity as a desceptionary ruling self is subverted through the intermittent alterity that the indispensable feminine Being-Anna Allmazifull-makes possible.
Anna Livia Plurabelle (ALP) represents a kind of discourse (gramma's grammer) that grammatologically brings forth a new status in which feminine otherness is altered into an origin that governs all patriarchal claims postrated and confirms them margin subject to feminine alterity.
To achieve a full subjectivity through alterity, Joyce appeals to dream, a means in which the self is fully lost and the process of becoming other flows without the trammel that consciousness brings about. Dream contains potentiality to make one which is two-Anna Livia and her daughter Issy or Anna and Kate. Anna lives so many lives especially her pre-self (Issy) her own current self, and her post-self (Kate) to certify feminine power which dwells in the male unconsciousness. Also, through dream, the three processes to which Freud refers as distortion, displacement, and condensation, are depicted to give more authenticity to gramma's grammer. That is through these processes the unconscious is structured to appeal the logic with the purpose of proving the nature of real feminine subjective manipulation over male-made canon. Hence the term alterity.
Tracing back the origin of alterity, one comes to term with sexuality as a genetic drive, in possession of female. Again, at this point Anna Livia stands at the head as an invincible representative of women and manipulates the condition through her top hand.
Anna who is prayed as "… Allmazifull, the Everliving, the Bringer of Plurabilities … (FW: 104.1-3) dissipates HCE into Howth Castle and Environs and gives us an important key to establish the motif of stone as death and the delineation of the creative power of sexuality reminds us the tree motif as life: so, the dialectic of stone and tree metaphorically stands for the dialectic of death and life within the sphere of the Hegelian Absolute Being (ALP).
Women have been an important role in society whether or not it is not remarked to the public eye. Oppression against women is never-ending along with violent acts constantly being pursued on them for over a century which is not only crucial but it is lessening their value worldwide. The suggestion of women’s emotions being a barrier for them to be equal to men is falsified, there is not one predicament that prevent a woman from being equal than a
She wrote this novel to inform readers that there are differences and similarities between the genders of male and female and how each of their minds work. She says, In other words, when we are not thinking of ourselves as “male” or “female” our judgements are the same. This quote directly shows us that she is trying to tell us what life is like with each gender.
Before she knew it, Anna quickly got overtaken by this passion, and it ultimately led to her own demise, as the love that Vronsky had to offer quickly diminished. This became a problematic force since Anna practically gave up everything she owned to chase the life that this man offered her. She did it in such a manner that she could no longer return back to her family or normal lifestyle. In a way, she was victim to a lifeless marriage by which she found herself to pretend to be happy. When Anna finally gets a shot at love, she realizes all that she has missed, and it is easy to see how she falls victim to such an enamored opportunity. Anna simply wanted to know that she mattered, to have been appreciated and admired. Unfortunately, being a
Feminist Theory is an aspect of considering feminism as having been based on socio-phenomenon issues rather than biological or scientific. It appreciates gender inequality, analyzes the societal roles played by feminists in a bid to promote the interests, issues and rights of women in the society. It is also based on the assumption that women play subsidiary roles in the society. The whole idea of feminism has however experienced hurdles in the form of stereotyping by the wider society. This paper tries to examine some of the effects of stereotypes that feminism goes through, what other philosophers say and the way forward towards ending stereotyping.
Early Modern English." Feminist Studies 19.2 (1993): 377+. JSTOR. Feminist Studies Inc.,. Web. 11 Dec. 2013.
The construction of gender is based on the division of humanity to man and woman. This is impossible ontologically speaking; because the humans are not divided, thus gender is merely an imaginary realm. It only exist in the language exercises, and the way that cultural products are conceived in them. This essay is a preliminary attempt to offer an analysis of ‘One Is Not Born a Woman’ by Wittig and ‘The Second Sex’ by Simone De Beauvoir holds on the language usage contribution to the creation of genders and the imagined femininity.
It is universally known that dreams are full of meanings and emotions. In Freud’s theory, all dreams are wish fulfillments or at least attempts at wish fulfillment. The dreams are usually presented in an unrecognizable form because the wishes are repressed. Freud proposes there are two levels in the structure of dreams, the manifest contents and the latent dream-thoughts. The manifest dream, a dream with understandable contents, is a substitute-formation that hides latent dream-thoughts, which are the abstract ideas in dreams. This translation of latent dream-thoughts to the manifest dream-content is defined by Freud as “dream-work”. Dream-work consists of certain types of transformation.
Ihara Saikaku’s Life of a Sensuous Woman written in the 17th century and Mary Woolstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman written in the 18th century are powerful literary works that advocated feminism during the time when women were oppressed members of our societies. These two works have a century old age difference and the authors of both works have made a distinctive attempt to shed a light towards the issues that nobody considered significant during that time. Despite these differences between the two texts, they both skillfully manage to present revolutionary ways women can liberate themselves from oppression laden upon them by the society since the beginning of humanity.
...present powerful characters, while females represent unimportant characters. Unaware of the influence of society’s perception of the importance of sexes, literature and culture go unchanged. Although fairytales such as Sleeping Beauty produce charming entertainment for children, their remains a didactic message that lays hidden beneath the surface; teaching future generations to be submissive to the inequalities of their gender. Feminist critic the works of former literature, highlighting sexual discriminations, and broadcasting their own versions of former works, that paints a composite image of women’s oppression (Feminist Theory and Criticism). Women of the twenty-first century serge forward investigating, and highlighting the inequalities of their race in effort to organize a better social life for women of the future (Feminist Theory and Criticism).
Clarice Lispector, a Brazilian female writer of Jewish descent, tied her writing with her very life, for her writing reflects her viewpoint on many aspects of her life. She was well-known for her existentialist writing involving themes revolving around women’s roles. Through the characters and their interactions in her works, Lispector explores the societal status of women. The male subjugation of women influences many of the themes found in her works and a better understanding of women’s social status ultimately leads to a better understanding of the relationship between the characters in her works and actions by those characters. Thus, the evaluation of women in the society contemporary to the era Lispector lived in influences the overall existentialist ideas and the motif of women’s roles in her work.
...nt, independent, and thoughtful character, there is an undertone running throughout he novel that suggests that she has failed to adopt the befitting social role for a woman. Ultimately, she is portrayed as irrational and emotionally labile, driven by insatiable desires: "I don't know myself," says Anna as she sinks near to her lowest ebb; "I only know my appetites, as the French say."15
Being a Feminist and having a Feminist point of view in observing every cultural, social and historical issue had been translated as having a feminine centered and anti-masculine perception. Unlike the general and common knowledge about feminism, it is not only an anti-masculine perception towards social and individual issues. Feminism according to Oxford dictionary is the theory of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes that more commonly known as the pursuit of equality for women’s rights. On the other hand, in studying literary books as it will be in this paper, the mentioned definition is not applicable. Therefore, in this paper Feminist criticism will be used in order to study some characters’ lives in “Like water for chocolate” and “Season of Migration to the north” novels. Feminist criticism according to Oxford dictionary is a type of literary theory that points out different genders, races, classes, religions that are depictured in literature and will be used in this paper.
Doris Lessing is definitely one of the most instrumental women writers in the 20th century. In the year 1962, her chef-d'oeuvre The Golden Notebook was published. It is regarded as the companion volume of Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex. The novel soon becomes popular among the feminists because of its realistic description about women’s independence, consciousness and their living condition. This paper has been written with the aim to interpret The Golden Notebook from feminist perspective. Theme, structure, characters, narrative style of the novel serves well for feminist interpretation. The very structure of the novel makes the theme reach; it reflects not only the fragmentation of Anna’s inner world, but also the chaotic society she lives in. Doris Lessing employed woman as the first person narrator of the novel. She has certainly served as spokeswoman for women’s rights in her life and work. After women have gotten the license, tremendous phenomenon directly illustrate a series of problems in women’s political life. Compared to traditional women, the ‘Free Women’ of The Golden Notebook enjoys free professional life, but they don’t get deserved happiness although they walked out bravely from the kitchen. The relationship between women and children is also a big issue in the crusade of feminism. Feminism has successfully provided the equality of parental rights to women. But the right couldn’t produce harmonious relationship in the lack of ‘fathers’ protection’ between women and children. Lessing’s novel tells us that males are not the enemies of women but they are their collaborators.
...er Theory complicated by post-colonial scholars and scholars of race who consider the ways gender intersects with nationalism, class, and race. As feminist critic Theresa de Lauretis suggests, “a new conception of the subject is, in fact, emerging from feminist analyses of women’s heterogeneous subjectivity and multiple identities . . . the differences among women may be better understood as differences within women.” It is important to realize that not only does feminism as a movement exist in the face of these contradictions and complications—within feminist criticism, within gender studies, within individual literary texts and within our understanding of the individual woman as a subject—but that it cannot exist without them. Perhaps, like Wonder Woman, feminist criticism remains vital because it is astonishingly diverse, open, and rigorously self-problematizing.
There has been a long and on going discourse on the battle of the sexes, and Simone De Beauvoir’s The Second Sex reconfigures the social relation that defines man and women, and how far women has evolved from the second position given to them. In order for us to define what a woman is, we first need to clarify what a man is, for this is said to be the point of derivation (De Beauvoir). And this notion presents to us the concept of duality, which states that women will always be treated as the second sex, the dominated and lacking one. Woman as the sexed being that differs from men, in which they are simply placed in the others category. As men treat their bodies as a concrete connection to the world that they inhabit; women are simply treated as bodies to be objectified and used for pleasure, pleasure that arise from the beauty that the bodies behold. This draws us to form the statement that beauty is a powerful means of objectification that every woman aims to attain in order to consequently attain acceptance and approval from the patriarchal society. The society that set up the vague standard of beauty based on satisfaction of sexual drives. Here, women constantly seek to be the center of attention and inevitably the medium of erection.