Review 2
I. Prose Fiction, Form and Gender
1. 3 major reasons why the gender of authors is a major concern in literary studies today: (1) a
considerable body of writing by women which are silenced or ignored (2) challenge the canon by
increasing the number of text studies and adding themes, images, and ideas to a list of literary
concerns (3) approaching literary texts we have not encountered before or widely studied. (p.71)
2. Focus on prose writing by women: (1) the historical treatment of women and women’s work (2)
the conditions of women’s lives as expressed in creative writing (3) reading newly “discovered”
texts can be thought-provoking and enjoyable
3. Carolyn Heibrun has argued that stories true to the experience of women will emerge “only when
women no longer live their lives isolated in the house and the stories of men” (Writing a Woman’s
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Life, 1988, p. 47). Stories by women may be different from those by men.
Writing as creative work not open to women (p.71-73, 76)
Writing as a form of work has some less obvious prerequisites: access to formal education, time to
read and write, connection to the (male) literary establishment. (p.71)
As most formal education prior to the twentieth century was reserved for men and “domestic work”
was reserved for women, clearly writing was not a form of work open to many women.
Marriage as a Trade －The Conflicts Between Domesticity and Creativity (p.72 Gilman, 74-75)
Charlotte Perkins Gilman in Women and Economics (1898) analyzes women’s economic
dependence on men and the reason why it was in the interest of patriarchy to keep women so
dependent.
9. Even for middle- and upper-class women who had to their father’s or brother’s private libraries,
writing was not considered a “feminine” pursuit, nor a proper form of work for women.
10. Since the “feminist” critical revolution of the 1960s and 70s, research into women’s writing has
uncovered a fascinating range of previously ignored women’s writing, including diaries by
working-class women and the journals of middle- and upper-class women.
11. The form of journal or diary often escapes easy categorization as “literature,”
12. The autobiographies and diaries of working-class women can be read both as fascinating
narratives and as valuable social-historical documents.
13. The form of epistolary novel based on letters between characters was greatly influenced by women
writer.
14. Writing as a form of work was and is clearly influenced by gender and the social construction of
“norms” for female and male activity.
15. The limitations imposed on women of all classes influenced the themes addressed in women’s
writing, and the forms and genres which women chose as their means of expression.
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16. As most middle- and upper- class women spent the majority of their time in the home, their frame
of reference was limited and their fiction tended to focus on the domestic, private world, even
though fiction, with its assumption of a readership, is a public form.
17. What are Woolf’s views on the relationship between fiction and gender? (p.73)
18. Marriage as a form of economic security offered to women – Mary Wollstonecraft’s “Thoughts
on the education of daughters” written in 1788 suggests education as a palliative to marriage
(p.74)
19. Wollstonecraft places on the need for women to be educated . . . suggests many women will be
brighter and more creative than their husbands, and would wither without some intellectual
stimulus.
20. The opposition between marriage as a fate or job for women, and the need for women to improve
themselves through education, is one which informed women’s writing.
21. Circely Hamilton’s treatise, Marriage as a Trade, first published in 1909 is the best known work to
deal with this crucial theme – women are socially influenced and culturally trained to be domestic,
to make themselves appear attractive according to generally accepted and usually male-influenced
“norms” of feminine beauty, in order to win marriage as a form of financial support. (p.74-75)
22. Hamilton argues women are far less “romantic” than men. Women know the real meaning of
marriage in financial practical terms. The romantic image of women in fiction is largely a male
construct. (p.75)
23. Virginia Woolf also argued on the theme of marriage as a trade and adopted the term “the Angel in
the House” referred to the idealized “feminine” figure who sacrificed her creative self for domestic
harmony.
24. Marriage as a trade would not necessarily provide the emotional and mental space for creative
experimentation, nor could even the most supportive marriage make up for the larger social
oppression of women as a group denied access to education.
25. Rosalind Miles in The Female Form (1987) argues that there has been a strong tendency for
women’s writing to gain them the status of “honorary men,” rather than of talented writers in their
own right. In addition, women’s work is valued differently from men’s.
26. Publishing under male and agendered pseudonyms was one way in which women writers made
their work public. Submitting work for publication under male or ambiguously gendered
pseudonyms afforded the anonymity necessary to have work judged by its literary merit, rather than
on grounds of gender difference. e.g. George Eliot and Louisa May Alcott.
27. The dilemma for women writers has been aptly described as a pull between “gender and genius.”
28. Gender and Genius －Shakespeare’s sister, Judith (p.76-77)
29. How does Virginia Woolf explain the opposition between “gender and genius”? (p. 76)
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30. Genius is not only a gift, but something which develops with education and the freedom to write . . .
the formation of “genius” requires the opportunity to makes oneself known, recognized and
recorded as such.
31. “Shakespeare’s Sister”: a female figure created by Woolf to stand for all the unrecognized and
under-developed female genius of the past. Woolf names this sister Judith, and in giving her a
name of her own she makes of her an individual, however, fictional. This process of naming is now
widely recognized as an important feminist strategy. (p.76-77)
32. Judith, Shakespeare’s sister, was written out of history by her gender. The task of “reading gender
in literature” is to raise the importance of women keeping names of their own, and of the
relationship between “gender and genius.” (p.77)
33. We can ask what the material and cultural conditions were which influenced women’s decision to
publish their some or all of their work under male or gendered pen names. The answers would
involve a detailed study of the role of women in culture generally, with specific reference to the
field of publishing and sets of expectations about what kind of work were appropriate to women.
34. Reader’s Tasks: uncovering and re-discovering women writers of the past. Important questions
we can ask about women writers of the past: Who were they? How might we begin to find and
give names to the many unnamed and silenced women of the past? How might we learn to
hear their voices, to ask questions about them?
35. System of Gatekeeping － Silence and Suppression (p.78-79)
36. What is Tilie Olsen referring to when she writs about “struggles to come into being”? (p.78)
37. “Struggle to come into being” is the expression of ideas in writing. Writing itself can be a struggle
when cultural expectations and pressures are not conducive, e.g. negative criticism
38. Olsen’s idea of silences is obviously relevant to discussion of literature and gender. Women, like
people of color, have been silenced as a group, treated as a minority or special interest group by the
publishing industry and academic institutions.
39. Joanna Russ in How to Suppress Women’s Writing comments on the silences of women’s writing
(p.78)
40. The system of gatekeeping to which Woolf refers in her essays describes the rules – official or
tacit – which long barred women from the gates of Oxford and Cambridge, and against which
writers have each reached in their own individual ways.
41. 3 main ways of contextualizing women’s writing of fiction (p.79)
42. Female Narrative － Fiction as a feminine form and female prose (p.80-85)
43. Why many women writers choose to write short stories? (p.80)
44. Woolf suggests that women’s fiction was developing into “shorter” and “more concentrated” forms
because women do not have access to “long hours of steady and uninterrupted work.”
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45. Advantages the short story form holds: brevity, characters are presented in a significant, isolated
moment of time (moment of being); the existence of the past and the future may be suggested, but
not with any certainty. (p.81)
46. Nadine Gordimer – the short story’s presentation of such discrete moments makes it true to the
lived experience of modern life (p.81)
47. Grace Paley stresses that her conception of storytelling is based on “illuminating the dark lives of
women.” (p.82)
48. The Short Story and the Lyric Poem (p.82-83)
49. The short story [written by women] is seen to combine the qualities that we traditionally associate
with prose – clear, everyday language which conveys facts and truths – and those associated with
poetry – an emphasis on features such as rhythm, imagery and diction.
50. Woolf noted the novel was seen as a genre appropriate to women in its depiction of a private,
domestic world, while poetry was associated with an elevated language to which only men had
access.
51. Woolf in her own work continually sought to disrupt the boundaries between the genres available to
women and men. For example, she subverts the traditionally factual forms of essay and biography
with the language of poetry. The juxtaposition of prose and poetry is most explicit in Woolf’s short
stories.
52. “The New Dress” becomes apparent that its language works in the manner of poetry – the story
progresses not though a series of publicly observable events and incidents but through the
development of private understanding of the meaning of key words and the emotions they describe.
(p.82-83)
53. The Short Story Collection (p.83-85)
54. The short story can be used to explore the plurality of life, its contrasts and contradictions without
trying to resolve them into a coherent whole. The linked short story collection offers to extend the
scope of the individual piece while retaining its separate identity, and without needing to resort to
the type of progressive development associated with the novel.
55. Elaine Showalter identifies the linked short story collection as particularly representative of
women’s writing – its techniques to those of quilting and piecing. Its multiplicity and openendedness constitute a feminine way of writing.
56. Telling Stories and the Oral Tradition (p.84-85)
57. Oral storytelling forms are very influential in written fiction. (Grace Paley p.84)
58. Telling stories has consequences, and listening is not only a pleasure but a duty.
59. Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” is an example of a short story that reproduces speech. We seem to be
overhearing a specific address – both speaker and recipient are clearly represented. (p.85)
60. Stories by and about women of color are particularly relevant to the theme of oral influence on
literary style.
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