‘Women’s literature’ refers to literature written by women. This being so, it is easy to categorize members of this genre by gender, but that is not to say that the category really exists as an object of study. A zoologist could locate entries to the type, `brown fauna’: the doubt though is whether he could learn anything zoological by studying a family composed of brown bears and [brown] lizard. Are there literary qualities included in all works by women and precluded from all works by men? And the answer is no. Clearly, this demarcation of women’s literature by literary institutions thus has been degrading, and the teaching of women’s literature in English departments, a subversion of women’s liberation.
Trying to classify literature by sex is a self-defeating task. There are thoughts in the writings of Atticus Finch that can sound feminine, and then there are those in Dorris Lessing’s that can sound masculine. We may be prepared to admit rhetorically that no man could have written Jane Eyre and no woman James Bond, but truly, if we try to define what is specifically masculine or feminine about them, the task can only turn futile. Are women more interested in dress and domestic life? And are men more interested in war and public events? Perhaps, but then writers descend this level to a greater meaning in their writings. Infact, greater the writer, greater the capacity to transcend particularities.
The same can be true of literary characters. Looking at female characters separately has resulted in many false conclusions: “Do women have problems charting one’s identity?” Well, so is the case with almost all the heroes of the “Bildungsroman”. Do women end up choosing between personal life and career? So must the other sex….Are many women ruined by not being able to choose the man they love? So are many men forced to let go their chosen mates. Do the women get discouraged by double standards and stereotypes associated with them? Can we not see men suffering in the same manner? A writer is a writer. You care about writing. You sit down, you write, you are not a woman, or an American. You are a writer.” So, Focusing on the writer’s gender is inherently confining and directed at a reading that is biased, a thing that proponents of women’s literature fought to begin with.
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发表于 2023-6-19 10:44:09
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