Outline Style Presentation
Nature being represented as woman
“Nature is like a woman who enjoys disguising herself, and whose different disguises, revealing now one part of her ad now another, permit those who study her and assiduously to hope that one day they may know the whole of her person” (Diderot)
Why this is an interesting topic?
Often saw references of nature with N and sounded like a proper name sometimes.
The connections between nature and the female form.
Connect the romantic period with the start of feminism and the new strategies and approaches theorists and philosophers and writers are taking now.
4 Possible Theories for connecting women with nature
1) Descending from precursory languages such as Anglo-Saxon (Old English), Italian, Spanish, Latin, Greek and French.
2) Based on the qualities generally associated with women and differences between gender roles
3) Connection between Woman and Nature and the life cycle
4) Biblical references
1) Languages with gendered nouns
Old English: gecynd
Latin: la natura
Italian: la natura
French: la nature
Spanish: la naturaleza
Greek: ÆÍ÷
All are gendered as female. Could be initial cause for why we tend to consider nature as female.
2) Gender Role of Woman
- Nature is feminized because it is seen as possessing the same qualities as women at the time when most of the romantic writing was produced
- Women were seen as being domestic, pious, moral, pure, gentle, kind, graceful, simple and beautiful; this was according to the nature of separate spheres: men and women were fundamentally different in terms of their characteristics as men were seen as hard-working, industrial, rational, assertive, independent and proud; none of which is easily connected with nature
- Therefore nature was seen as the embodiment of all the characteristics that women possess and there are frequent references to this in literature, especially poetry
eg. “Constant rotation of th’unwearied wheel
That nature rides upon maintains her health,
Her beauty, her fertility”
(Cowper, The Task, Book 1: The Sofa, 359-61
Myths reveal to us the experiences of women living in the patriarchal society and we gain the symbol value accorded to women and we came to realize what the term "Woman" meant to the ancient Greek man.
Men and women were seen to live in separate social class from the men where women were considered not only physically weaker, but morally superior to men. This meant that women were the best suited for the domestic role of keeping the house. Women were not allowed in the public circle and forbidden to be involved with politics and economic affairs as the men made all the
Feminist theory, which occurred from feminist doings, marks to twig the kind of masculinity disproportion by scrutinizing women's mutual roles and lived participation; it has industrialized patterns in a range of self-controls in mandate to answer to problems such as the mutual making of femininity and masculinity. Some of the past whereabouts of feminism have been scorned for fascinating into report only antediluvian, conventional, experienced evaluations. This operated to the contraption of genealogically limited or multiculturalist treatments of feminism.
The renaissance began a momentous time in the history of Western Europe. Many new forms and styles of arts, literature, and customs emerged during this period. Economic, social, and cultural changes affected the lives of everyone. Particularly the role of women in society was affected. There were four categories of women: wives, mothers, widows and daughters. Within each of these categories, certain duties were expected. Jacob Burckhardt once wrote, 'to understand the higher forms of social intercourse in this period, we must keep before our minds the fact that women stood on a footing of perfect equality with men.'. It is a widely known fact that this in no way was true. Inequalities between men and women have always affected society. Men were constantly gaining up on women and spoke of them with contempt. They believed that woman was more sinful than man. This belief goes back to original sin when Eve had been seduced by the devil. Eve's actions made men assume that women deserved to suffer.
Women in the Romantic era were long away from being treated as equals, they were expected by society to find a husband and become a typical housewife and mother. So what happens when women get tired of being treated horribly and try to fight back towards getting men to treat them as an equal? Both Mary Robinson’s “The Poor Singing Dame” and Anna Barbauld’s “The Rights of Women” show great examples on how women in the Romantic Era were disrespected and degraded by men, whereas all they wanted was to be treated as equals with respect and dignity.
Feminism is a group of movements and ideologies that have a common goal: the political, economic and social equality of the sexes ("Feminism," 2015). Historians have debated the origin of feminism (Rampton, 2015). Did it begin with the greek poetess Sappho? Or with the french author, Christine de Pizan, who is regarded as the the first woman to take up her pen in defense of her sex (Beauvoir, 1953, p. 105)? Women throughout history have challenged society's attitudes when it comes to the female gender and their contributions overtime have made a great impact for women all around the world today. It was around the eighteenth century when Mary Wollstonecraft, often distinguished as the first feminist philosopher, advocated for the same respect and rights for the female sex. However, it was not until the late nineteenth century, that the feminist movement, or rather a series of movements, emerged.
Feminism as an ideology has only really taken force since the late 18th century. (Fraser: 2014) In Mary Wollstonecra...
Ortner, S. (1996) Is Female to Male as Nature Is to Culture? Retrieved from http://moodle.csun.edu
femininity. She first expresses two different ways of thinking about the nature of gender: as
The roles of men and women were clearly defined during the Nineteenth century. Society relied on men to support the women and children, while the women held the responsibility of maintaining the morality of America. Women were judged by four main characteristics: piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity. According to most literature of the time written by both males and females, a woman without these was nothing, but with them she could attain happiness and power (Welter 102).
According to “The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language”, the word “feminity” is defined as “the quality or condition of being feminine or a characteristic or trait traditionally held to be female.” Further speaking, feminity is formed by various socially-defined and biologically-created gender roles played by women influenced by a number of social and cultural factors. For example, the traditional gender roles of women include nurturer, birth giver, homemaker and caregiver. However, marked by a series of women's rights movements starting from the 19th century, women’s gender roles, as well as the ways how society and men perceive women, have been largely changed. This significant change, described as a process of female awakening, was widely reflected in many contemporary literature works. This essay will specifically focus on the construction of feminity in two short stories, “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway and “The Stoy of an Hour” by Kate Chopin through examining how the authors define “feminity” in their treatment of female characters.
There is no doubt that the literary written by men and women is different. One source of difference is the sex. A woman is born a woman in the same sense as a man is born a man. Certainly one source of difference is biological, by virtue of which we are male and female. “A woman´s writing is always femenine” says Virginia Woolf
Of all the Impressionist artists, it is Pierre Auguste Renoir who is most interested in painting humans and studying the portrayal of human emotions. Renoir’s technique of broken brush strokes was combined with brash colours to portray the light and movement of the subject. He was greatly inspired to paint figures, particularly of women. Renoir succeeded in assembling several figures in one frame and his compositions were complex and demanded several revisions. In the 1880s Pierre-Auguste Renoir sought to move his art beyond Impressionism and to forge a link between modern art and the classical tradition of French painting from the Renaissance period. The result was this large-scale composition of nude bathers, which occupied much of his attention for three years. This work is unique in the history of modern painting for their representation of feminine grace, and they show Renoir’s ability to capture the soft and pearly texture of skin. Even though his figures in “The large Bathers” do not follow the impressionist style of broken brush strokes, the landscape in this painting seems looks like an impressionist landscape.
Evaluate and respond to the presentations of women in the Romantic period. Feel free to discuss presentations of women, by women (such as Austen’s Persuasion) as well as presentations of women by men (such as the “she” in Byron’s “She Walks in Beauty”). Consider the following questions: are these presentations problematic? What do they tell us about the values and briefs of the Romantic Period? Do any of these presentations subvert (complicate, or call into questions) the time’s notions of femininity?
This essay is an attempt to survey the temporal and spacial evolution of the literary movement of feminism in the United States. The feminist movement has always has the main concern of establishing and defending equal human rights. It has passed through three main time periods that are called “waves”, each with differ order priorities. I will try to view the main claims and issues each wave has dealt with as well as study some of the most renowned female writers/activists whose works have been central in reshaping the American attitudes...