Buchi Emecheta's The Joys of Motherhood as an African Feminist Text Upon my first reading of Buchi Emecheta's The Joys of Motherhood, I immediately rejoiced--in this novel, I had finally encountered an account of a female protagonist in colonial and postcolonial African life. In my hands rested a work that gave names and voices to the silent, forgotten mothers and co-wives of novels by male African writers such as Chinua Achebe. Emecheta, I felt, provided a much-needed glimpse into the world
happen, Virginia Woolf the writer must demonstrate how a few hundred pounds and some privacy translate into a wealth of new books by women. To do this, she uses a most natural example: A Room of One's Own itself. Before it became a seminal feminist text or the source of countless cultural clichés, this essay was first a piece of writing by a woman of some means and leisure. It is both the result and the purveyor of a set of ideal creative conditions for the female author. Employing an innovative
role that men have set as a goal for which to strive. Harriet Jacobs' slave epic is a powerful statement unveiling the impossibility and undesirability of achieving the ideal put forth by men and maintained by women. Her narrative is a strong feminist text. The idealized Woman that men and women alike propagated consists of four qualities. "The attributes of True Womanhood, by which a woman judged herself and was judged by her husband, her neighbors and society, could be divided into four cardinal
Gothic and Feminist Elements of The Yellow Wallpaper Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" has been interpreted in many ways over the years. Modernist critics have applied depth psychology to the story and written about the symbolism of sexual repression in the nursery bars, the chained-down bed, and the wallpaper. Genre critics have discussed the story as an example of supernatural gothic fiction, in which a ghost actually haunts the narrator. But most importantly, feminist critics
Misguided Feminist Reaction to A Streetcar Named Desire The dramatic climax of A Streetcar Named Desire, clearly illustrates the mastery of author Tennessee Williams. The brilliantly constructed text, with its tragic story and enticing characters, propels the reader to a point in which he becomes emotionally involved in the dynamics of Williams’ world. Unfortunately, many feminists are negatively affected by Williams’ captivating writing style. In turn, feminists have developed an array of very
Feminist Theory - There is No One Definition of Woman When posed with the question “What is woman?” it seems a daunting task to lay an umbrella statement to describe an entire gender. Upon further reflection, however, it seems that this overwhelming inability to answer the question, may in fact, be the answer to the question itself. Within the past two decades Maria Lugones and Elizabeth Spelman, Caroline Whitbeck, Geraldine Finn, and Helene Cixous have addressed the meaning of woman. There
The Feminist Subtext of A Midsummer Night's Dream Shakespeare's works have persistently influenced humanity for the past four hundred years. Quotations from his plays are used in many other works of literature and some common phrases have even become integrated into the English language. Most high schoolers have been unsuccessful in avoidance of him and college students are rarely afforded the luxury of choice when it comes to studying the bard. Many aspects of Shakespeare's works have been
"In what ways can "King Schahriar and his Brother" be considered a feminist text?" During the 18th century, a collection of Middle-Eastern and South Asian stories were compiled into a book now known as "One Thousand and One Nights". The opening story in the collection is "King Schahriar and his Brother", and it is a story about how the king of the Persian Empire turned to cruelty and violence after finding out his lover had committed adultery. Despite the king being the main character, we have an
In her book Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black, bell hooks describes how she helps her students find their voice within her classroom.She discusses her use of authority to enable her students.For her, teacher authority is a necessary part of helping her students find their voices: Another important issue for me has been that each student participates in classroom discussion, that each student has a voice.This is a practice I think is important not because every student has something
The Political, Feminist, and Religious view of Frances E.W. Harper, Phllis Wheatley, and Alice Dunbar-Nelson Phillis Wheatley, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, and Francis E. W. Harper were all groundbreaking and poignant authors whose works have remained influential throughout time. Feminism, politics, and religion are three aspects evident in their personal lives an d literature. Wheatley was considered a feminist icon because she was the first published African American female poet. However, her writing
A Feminist Refutation of the Deconstruction of The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle As Captain Jaggery’s ostensibly moral imperative from Avi’s The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle implores, we the readers “protect the natural order of the world” through our disbelief in our heroine as reflected in our intuitive reflection upon and deconstructionalist critique of the book. In fact, it is likely that our disbelief of Charlotte’s story is as much a comment on our attitudes towards
Self-sufficient Text" by "using internal evidence only [to analyze the poem] and to determine to what extent the literary text is self-sufficient. It seems to [Riffaterre] that a proper reading entails no more than a knowledge of the language" (39). Riffaterre identifies psychological, philosophical, and genetic interpretations (connected to "mythological tradition") as "aiming outwards." These approaches find the meaning of the text in the relationship of its images to other texts" (40). Riffaterre
Jane Eyre as Feminist Role Model for all Women In 1837 critic Robert Southey wrote to Charlotte Bronte, "Literature cannot be the business of a woman's life, and it ought not to be. The more she is engaged in her proper duties, the less leisure will she have for it, even as an accomplishment and a recreation," (Gaskell 102). This opinion was not held by only one person, but by many. Indeed, it is this attitude, one that debases women and their abilities, to which Charlotte
social order of the orthodox church, look like in the twentieth-first century?” When modern feminist theologians look at the text of the scriptures, they are quick to point out neglected aspects of the Word and are quick to challenge the "patriarchal" worldviews and assumptions that many consider to be biblical, but may indeed only be cultural. Evangelical feminists who uphold the integrity of the biblical text as the Word of God have done much to cause the Church to reexamine its views on the role
Psychoanalytical and Feminist approaches to D. H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers Psychoanalytical and feminist approaches are two relatively recent critical responses towards literary texts. When applied to D. H. Lawrence's Son's and Lovers, both can be insightful yet problematic at the same time. The theories of psychoanalysis, primarily identified with Sigmund Freud, can be applied to imaginative literature and art in general, in order to study their manifest and latent content, in the same
on New Historicism, Feminist Criticism and Deconstruction in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter Introduction Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter has been a highly debatable topic of numerous critical essays, written by scholars who approach the novel from various perspectives of literary criticism. Due to the diversity of perspectives, the questions proposed by these scholars vary and hence the conclusions they arrive at by examining the same literary text may differ not only
Anti-Feminist Beliefs in The Miller's Tale and The Wife of Bath's Tale The Miller's Tale and The Wife of Bath's Tale feature two characters that, though they may appear to be different, are actually very similar. They both seem to confirm the anti-feminine beliefs that existed at the time Chaucer wrote his Canterbury Tales. However, they go about it in different ways. Alison, the woman in The Miller's Tale, tries to hide the fact that she has a passion for men other than her husband, and keep
Hellen Nellie McClung: A Canadian Feminist Helen "Nellie" Laetitia Mooney was born October 20, 1873 in a log cabin on Garafraxa Road, two kilometers from Chatsworth, Ontario. She and her family moved to Manitoba when she was six years old. One of Nellie's best influences was her mother. Her family's influence was no doubt the reason she became an activist. Her mother thought that every child had the right to an education, and her whole family encouraged her to learn all she could. (9, Wright) Nellie
differences between the sexes" (Microsoft Bookshelf). In her statement we see a cultural feminist response to the dominant liberal feminism of the 1970s. Liberal feminism de-emphasized gender differences, claiming that women were the equals of men and that this would be obvious if only they were offered the same opportunities as men with no special privileges necessary. On the other hand, cultural feminists such as Stassinopoulos claimed that women's unique perspective and talents must be valued
MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE: forgotten feminist Introduced by Susan B. Anthony at the International Council of Women in 1888, Matilda Josyln Gage began her speech with a brief sketch of her early entry into the suffrage movement: I have frequently been asked what first turned by thoughts towards woman's rights. I think I was born with a hatred of oppression, and, too, in my father's house, I was trained in the anti-slavery ranks, for it was one of the stations on the underground railway, and a home of