Atwood

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Recommended: Introduction to a vindication of the rights of woman

The crux of Atwood’s essay holds a particular relevance to today’s gender issues and to explore the ideas raised by Atwood is to explore the contemporary gender debate. Emerging from the essay is a distinction between two separate kinds (or stages) of gender equality. Atwood uses the platform she’s been given to acknowledge the first of these and the progress that has been made, noticing the significance of the gathering she speaks before and how it would not have been possible several decades ago because ‘there wouldn’t have been enough female reviewers and publishing people available to speak’ (Atwood, 1994: 6). The first stage of equality to which Atwood refers is simply gaining admission into a male dominated sphere, in this case the world of literature. The body of the essay is focussed on the second and more problematic stage of equality; Atwood directly addresses this more radical notion. This type of equality involves, as put by the book critic Ruth Franklin, ‘redesigning the landscape itself, redefining the terms on which value is assessed, and rewriting the books of myths’ (Franklin, 2012). In other words, it means achieving an equal treatment within the literary sphere and the wider society. Considering that this transcript appeared in the Women’s Review of Books in 1994, the issues that Atwood raises still exist as targets and are as valid as they have ever been. It seemed appropriate to speak about this text as the specifics that Atwood explores remain important and topical. When faced with the essay and its implications one feels naturally drawn to the reasons Atwood provides for unbalanced treatment. While researching surrounding issues these were the areas that provided the most intrigue. When there is an overwhe... ... middle of paper ... ...ale writers are producing. A noticeable trend is that the female author seems disinclined to write a longer novel. If this is because the female author feels such a novel is unwelcome, then there are even more serious problems in the literary community than Atwood speaks of in her essay. As the American writer Francine Prose commented over a decade ago ‘Do we insist that contemporary male writers – Rick Moody, David Foster Wallace, Jonathan Franzen – stick to a narrow band of illumination?’ (Prose, 1998: 4). While Atwood’s essay did help to shed light on other literary texts that deal with similar issues, the main sentiment served to reinforce an important reading strategy that itself practices equality. The reader, by reserving judgement and as Atwood puts it ‘hearing’ without ‘seeing’ (Atwood, 1994: 6), allows the power of the literary voice to take full effect.

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