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Religion influence on literature
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Recommended: Religion influence on literature
CO1001
Compare and contrast the role of religion in any TWO of the novels you have read in this module.
In The House of Ulloa and No Way Back, the depiction of religion, defined as “strict fidelity or faithfulness; conscientiousness; devotion to some principle,” greatly differs in gendered representations. For the male and masculine, religion is an asset, earning praise and rewards. For the female and feminine, however, religious fervor often earns derision and causes inner turmoil. The impersonal narratives and “tragicomic” genre examine this bias within the setting. By juxtaposing the gendered depictions of religion in characters, events, and prose, Emilia Pardo Bazán and Theodor Fontane underscore the partiality of gender relations in the nineteenth century.
The female protagonists of each novel, Marcelina (commonly known as Nucha) and Countess Christine, qualify as religious characters as they devote themselves to principle. In fact, clergymen in the novel describe them as “religious,” “noble” women in direct speech, although other men do not share such positive sentiments. The adjective “strict” in the definition also describes both women, as Christine and Nucha’s respective husbands, as well as Christine’s brother, express their apprehension, if not outright derision, of extreme religious devotion. Furthermore, Don Pedro exploits Nucha’s religiousness for his own amusement by behaving amorally in her presence. In each novel, men evaluate and manipulate a woman based on her religious traits. Conversely, as a result of Christine’s devotion, Asta describes her mother as the “best” of her parents and Fräuline Dobschütz calls the Countess an “angel.” Although these female characters view Christine favorably, they, like Chr...
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...s. http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/45502?rskey=cO1lwo&result=1&isAdvance d=false (accessed December 03, 2013).
"fidelity, n.". OED Online. September 2013. Oxford University Press. http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/69888?redirectedFrom=fidelity (accessed
December 03, 2013).
Fontane, Theodor. No Way Back. Translated by Hugh Rorrison and Helen Chambers.
London: Penguin Classics, 2013.
"Madonna, n.". OED Online. September 2013. Oxford University Press. http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/112068?redirectedFrom=madonna (accessed
December 03, 2013).
"religion, n.". OED Online. September 2013. Oxford University Press. http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/161944?redirectedFrom=religion. Accessed
December 03, 2013.
"whore, n.". OED Online. September 2013. Oxford University Press. http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/228780?rskey=g2nz6w&result=1&isAdvanc ed=false (accessed December 03, 2013).
In the beginning of Holy Feast and Holy Fast, Bynum provides background information on the history of women in religion during the Middle Ages, highlighting the different statuses of men and women in society during that time. It is important to understand the culture of the Middle Ages and the stereotypes surrounding men and women to appreciate Bynum’s connection between status, accessibility, and piety. As an example, Bynum mentions that there appear to be basic differences between even the lives of holy women and the lives of holy men, which was because “women lacked control over their wealth and marital status” (Bynum p. 25). Men are clearly construed here as having more power in their daily lives than women—this is a simple, but major, distinction between the two genders which provides reasoning towards their divergence in practices. Women’s s...
In Women, Church, God: A Socio-Biblical Study, Caleb Rosado uses a socio-biblical approach to discuss the role of women in the church today and how they were treated in the Bible, during the patriarchal times. Rosado looks at the connection between what people believe now, their culture, and how they treat women in regards to how one perceives God. This book contains ten chapters in which several topics are discussed, including the nature of God, the treatment of women in the Bible, patrimonialism, servitude, and servanthood.
Marie de France’s Lais, Guigemar and Yonec, are statements about the female condition of the twelfth- and thirteenth-century. In these Lais, the female characters are literally trapped by their jealous husbands and by their unwanted marriages. This jealousy is a tenant of the courtly romances from the time of Marie de France. In Guigemar and Yonec, the women protagonists do not have freedom or voice where their husbands are concerned; however, when the supernatural intervenes and their knights are brought to them, they are given love, a man who listens to their wants and needs, and a chance at freedom. These Lais make use of the tropes of courtly love and marriage, but rebel against them in a quiet and unsuspecting way. By rebelling against the rules of courtly love, Marie de France offers the ‘other-world’ and the supernatural as an appropriation of a future for women that did not yet exist.
The issue of religion in women's horror is much like the issue of class. In most major organized religions there is a definite patriarchal structure of male dominance. The Father, the Son, the Pope, bishops and priests are all part of this structure that mostly lack woman influences. The religious structure reflects the male dominated society as a whole. As one would expect, women are frightful and perhaps horrified at this exclusionary system and in women's horror the idea of a woman Christ figure has been brought forth. Perhaps women are in touch with the idea of the Christ-like figure, one that is nurturing and motherly and by using a woman with Christ-like attributes, the structure of religion is commented on and destructured. Men's horror, however, works in the opposite direction by struggling to maintain the structure as it stands. While women battle to overthrow the ideas of a patriarchal religion, men battle to keep this disturbance in check and find comfort in the reassurance from male horror in the reassertion of male dominance.
Many readers feel the tendency to compare Aphra Behn's Oroonoko to William Shakespeare's Othello. Indeed they have many features in common, such as wives executed by husbands, conflicts between white and black characters, deceived heroes, the absolute vulnerability of women, etc. Both works stage male characters at both ends of their conflicts. In Othello, the tragic hero is Othello, and the villain is Iago. In Oroonoko, the hero is Oroonoko, the vice of the first part is the old king, and the second part white men in the colony. In contrast to their husbands, both heroines—Desdemona and Imoinda—seem more like "function characters" who are merely trapped in their husband's fates, occasionally becoming some motivation of their husbands (like Desdemona is Othello's motivation to rage, Imoinda's pregnancy drives Oroonoko restless to escape). While Shakespeare and Behn put much effort in moulding them, to many readers they are merely "perfect wives". This paper aims to argue that, Desdemona and Imoinda's perfect wifehood may be the product of compliance to male-dominated societies, where women are
The movement for female right is one of the important social issue and it is ongoing reaction against the traditional male definition of woman. In most civilizations there was very unequal treatment between women and men with the expectation being that women should simply stay in the house and let the men support them. A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen, and Trifles, by Susan Glaspell, are two well-known plays that give rise to discussions over male-female relationships. In both stories, they illustrate the similar perspectives on how men repress women in their marriages; men consider that women should obey them and their respective on their wives is oppressed showing the problems in two marriages that described in two plays. Therefore, in this essay, I will compare two similar but contrast stories; A Doll's House and Trifles, focusing on how they describe the problems in marriage related to women as victims of suppressed right.
In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the reader is treated to an enthralling story of a woman’s lifelong quest for happiness and love. Although this novel may be analyzed according to several critical lenses, I believe the perspectives afforded by French feminists Helene Cixous and Luce Irigaray have been most useful in informing my interpretation of Hurston’s book. In “The Laugh of the Medusa,” Cixous discusses a phenomenon she calls antilove that I have found helpful in defining the social hierarchy of women and relationships between them in the novel. In addition, Cixous addresses the idea of woman as caregiver, which can be illustrated through the character of Janie in Their Eyes Were Watching God. On the other hand, Luce Irigaray discusses the different modes of sexual desire of men and women in her essay, “The Sex Which is Not One.” Many examples supporting and refuting her claims can be found in the novel. According to Cixous, the most heinous crime committed by men against women is the promotion of antilove. “Insidiously, violently, they have led [women] to hate women, to be their own enemies, to mobilize their immense strength against themselves, to be the executants of their virile needs” (1455). Their Eyes Were Watching God offers many examples of women in vicious contention with one another, usually involving or benefiting a man. Janie is confronted by the malice of her female neighbors in the very first chapter of the novel, as she arrives back in Eatonville after her adventure with Tea Cake. “The women took the faded shirt and muddy overalls and laid them away for remembrance. It was a weapon against her strength and if i...
The bible has been the center of many debates and has been used correctly and incorrectly. My objective in this paper is to illuminate the many flaws in the century-old yet ever present interpretation of the bible that suggests women are lesser than men. I will also commend and explain the use of the bible during the civil rights movement.
There are many socially constructed beliefs that help feed gender inequality. One of the primitive and initial source that influences gender inequality is tradition developed by religion.
Traditional female characteristics and female unrest are underscored in literary works of the Middle Ages. Although patriarchal views were firmly established back then, traces of female contempt for such beliefs could be found in several popular literary works. Female characters’ opposition to societal norms serves to create humor and wish- fulfillment for female and male audiences to enjoy. “Lanval” by Marie De France and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” by Geoffrey Chaucer both show subversion of patriarchal attitudes by displaying the women in the text as superior or equal to the men. However, “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” also incorporates conventional societal ideas by including degradation of women and mistreatment of a wife by her husband.
...eedom was found and cultural boundaries were not shattered, simply battered, the narrator’s path was much preferable to that of her sisters (those who conformed to cultural boundaries). Through this story we can see how oppression in certain cultures changes individuals differently, creates tension between those who do not wish to be subjugated and those doing the subjugating, and we see the integral opposition between the path of Catholicism and that of curandismo.
The story of Marcela is first encountered second hand through a male character who describes her in the most negative way. In his criticism “Competing Narrative Discourses: (fe)male Fabulation in the Episode of Grisóstomo and Marcela,” John P. Gabriele agrees that Marcela is misinterpreted by the male characters who describe her to Don Quixote (509). The men plea that she is very cruel and “does more harm in this land than the plague” (Cervantes 85). Even though Marcela has asserted her independence and rejected a countless number of men desiring to obtain her love, the men still objectify her by “waiting to see where her haughtiness will end and who will be the fortunate man to conquer so difficult a nature” (Cervantes 85). Referring to her as something to be “conquered” demonstrates how women were respected as nothing more than property and a source of pride. Yvonne Jehenson describes Marcela’s situation as “a male fantasy, a microcosmic image of man’s gender-inflected wish fulfillment” (Gabriele 510). This explains why the men have so much built up frustration towards Marcela for being the complete opposite of their
Many short story writers have written about the gender and role of woman in society. Some of these stories express what Barbara Walter calls, “The Cult of True Womanhood” meaning the separation of both man and woman in social, political and economic spheres. In order to be considered a “true woman” woman were to abide by the set of standards that were given to her. Women were expected to live by the four main principal virtues - piety, purity, submissiveness, and domestication. In Kate Chopin’s short story, “The Storm,” Calixta the main female character breaks away from “The Cult of True Womanhood” when she has a sexual encounter with her past lover Alcée. The storm goes through many twists and turns that tie with their adulterous actions. Although she breaks away from the four main principal virtues, she in the end is considered to be pure innocent of heart because the action in which occurred happened instantly, and as white as she was, she was taken away from her innocence.
One of the most significant changes in the genre through the years is how the role of women tended to shift over the course of time with each new Western, thus still obtaining the traditional aspiring schoolteacher from the East who has no idea of the ways of the West, that takes on the role of the “good woman”, while also a new addition is presented as well: the fallen woman – but not only is the introduction of these new personalities and traits of these familiar roles vital, but also the conflicts and encounters between these different types of women, particularly the proper and the fallen.
The role of women in religious scripture dictates an inferior position in society. Beginning with the creation of Adam and then Eve, as his helpmate. Her purpose was that Adam would not be lonely. This origin provides the ground work for inequality of genders on the basis of religious scripture. The roles prescribed determined that women should be in a subordinate position to man. The female role and relationship with God is defined by the various books of the Old and New Testaments, the reported actions of Jesus Christ, and finally the Qur'an.