Atwood discusses the several genres of fiction that are available in this time and explains how this is not only a time of gender crossover but of genre crossover. By using the comparison she shows how literature has evolved as well as gender relations. In conclusion Margaret Atwood’s speech “spotty handed villainess” is a speech that explores the flaws in extreme feminism, challenges the patriarchal order and examines the intentions of literature and fiction. The speech still has relevance today as it examines gender roles and expectations in modern day
New York: W. W. Norton &, 2005. 541-558. Print. The author of this work tries to prove that Hawthorne can be viewed as a feminist because of his writing of The Scarlet Letter and many other works. He brings examples from the novel to prove that some of the statements and major themes that Hawthorne puts out are actually ranging towards more feminist than not.
Mrs Dalloway is more a critical portrayal of society than it is of the female protagonist.’ To what extent do you believe this to be true for both Mrs Dalloway and the female characters in The Hours? Writers can often encourage sympathy for characters we would normally despise. To what extent and by what means do Ibsen in A Doll’s House and Nabokov in Lolita achieve this feat? In On Chesil Beach and Revolutionary Road both McEwan and Yates present desire as a disruptive force. To what extent does your reading of the texts lead you to share this view?
Marylin Farwell offers a detailed response to the complicated genre of lesbian literature. Farwell recognizes the need to “’read against the grain’” in order to establish the encoded meanings and forms in lesbian writing that are not clearly placed across a fictional tale. It is with this type of reading perhaps that a lesbian narrative space is created by Cather in My Ántonia. Cather illustrates a story of Jim Burden and his relationship with Ántonia within a backdrop of events that can be appropriated as forming a lesbian narrative space. Cather’s characterisation, with effective use of binary oppositions, a male narrative voice and critique of conventional gender/norms and roles allows this lesbian narrative space to be drawn out from the main text.
As an example two influential short stories will be discussed in depth in order to shed light into the lives of the two authors and their stories. The short stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935) and Angela Carter (1940–1992) both sideway the same idea; the confinement of women in particular roles and positions in both personal and professional lives, posed on them by patriarchal figures. Toril Moi quotes in her examination of feministic criticism, Sexual/Textual Politics (2002), Elaine Showalter’s idea that “women writers should not be studied as a distinct group on the assumption that they write alike, or even display stylistic resemblances distinctively feminine” (Moi, 2002: 49), which comes across when reading the two stories which are stylistically already very different. It might be so that a feminist reader of both times (there’s some 80 years difference between the two stories) did not only want to see her own experiences mirrored in fiction, but strived to identify with strong, impressive female characters (Moi, 2002: 46), and looked for role-models that would instil positive sense of feminine identity by portraying women as self-actualising strong identities who were not dependent on men (Moi, 2002, 46). The two stories bring out two female characters, very different by position and character; the other a new mother, scared and confused of her own role, and the other a young newly-wed girl, still a child, being fouled by a much older man, mainly as a mark of his authority over women in general.
Cultural Lens Film Paper The cultural lens is a literary device used to look at text from a alternate perspective other than merely looking at a text through your own personal views and opinions, and instead focuses on gender issues, post-colonial ideas and the marxist view of life. As stated above the three seperate strands in the cultural lens are the gender lens, which obviously focuses on gender issues in society, post-colonialism focuses on groups forcing their will or exploiting another, adn the marxist lens focuses on the class struggles of society. One important thing about this lens is to keep and eye out for any subtle nods to one of theses lenses, such as doll consistently being referenced in a novel; which may seem insignifigant in other lense but after looking at it through the gender lens may have further meaning. In the movie "Letters From Iwo Jima" one notable instance of the difference in culture is when Saigo's squad commits suicide rather than surrender or face capture by the enemy. From a western viewpoint this may seem totally alien and far to extreme, but for the Japanese this was what they were taught, surrender or capture by the enemy was the ultimate disgrace upon you, your family and your nation and to die in fighting for your country was the ultimate honor.
When you use a quote make sure you explain what it shows. Introduction Composers use distinctive voices in their texts to enable us to think about significant issues in the world. Marele Day, in her novel “The Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender” (LACOHL), uses the literary form of detective fiction to challenge our perceptions of the roles of men and women in society and presents us with characters who use distinctive voices in different situations revealing much about themselves and their relationships with others. These significant issues are also explored in _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________. Each of the composers of these texts effectively use distinctive voices to present their ideas and allow us to think about significant issues in the world.
In writing this, he wanted to stress that each approach has an agenda and that these agendas should make us suspicious. To help get his answers, Knoblauch references articles from various writings of other literate authors throughout the essay helping to get his point across. The essay starts out with discussing how the labels literate and illiterate are sociocultural judgments laden with disapproval or pity about the character and place, the worthiness and prospects, of persons and groups. It then goes on to talk about how there is no uniformity of view of literacy and how the definitions of it are also rationalizations of its importance. Showing how social reality depends on literacy, Knoblauch uses the Middle ages as an example when he talks about how clerks back then were trained to read and write so they could keep accounts for landowners, merchants, etc.
However one could also argue that Larkin seems to justify violence against women by suggesting that access to women is something men have been unfairly deprived of. This becomes evident in the first stanza where Larkin presents the girl in ‘white satin’ suggesting her purity and virginity. One could disagree with this statement and interpret the de-feminizing of women differently. It could be suggested that Larkin combines masculinity and femininity together, ‘moustached lips’, to show his view that men and women should be viewed more equally in society. However I disagree with this alternative interpretation as I feel Larkin tries to portray the attacks ‘snaggle-toothed’ and boss-eyed’ are sadistic and grotesque but he does not disagree with
Overview and Context The poem might be viewed as a literary exercise in logic as much as a ‘love’ poem’. Marvell’s speaker uses a tripartite structure to follow his argument to its conclusion, effectively forming a ‘syllogism’. This poem is also a prime example of the ‘sex-death’ juxtaposition (which critics such as Roland Barthes have explored in more detail), also a marked characteristic of Romeo and Juliet. Whilst many students will be able to understand the ideas contained within this poem, a very rough ‘translation’, such as the one which follows, may be useful. Click on the images to enlarge them.