Women in literature

In my thesis, I argue three assertions: 1) that the 21 st Century antiheroine
who has figured so prominently in literature and film is an evolution of the
heroine archetype that combines both the action-oriented traditional male hero
archetype and the tragically flawed, antagonistic anti-heroine archetype, 2) that
the foundation for this newly modified pop culture antiheroine can be traced back
to Margaret Mitchell's iconic character, Scarlett O'Hara, and finally 3) that this
new modem heroine archetype, the antiheroine, has become an integral part of
popular culture, both in literature and film as well as other popular media. As my
primary texts I used Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind, the David O.
Selznick film ofthe same title, Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand
Faces, as well as several other primary and secondary sources, including the
published volume of Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind related letters.

Jeanette Winterson's novel Sexing the Cherry addresses literary genres in which women's voices have been silenced or marginalized, demonstrating John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor Mill's claim that only when women have "lived in a different country from men and [have] never read any of their writings [will] they have a literature of their own" (207). This philosophy may be viewed in light of Edward Said's theory of colonization in which he argues that a people who colonize by violence maintain authority, while those people who are colonized are subject to "the paternalistic arrogance of imperialism" (Culture xviii). Winterson's desire to reclaim the authority of women illustrates her need for permission to narrate and to be "taken out of the Prism of [her] own experience" (Winterson, Into 17). As a result, she rewrites history, myth, fairy tale, and pornography, reversing the traditional gender roles and inverting the gender hierarchy. Women, in Sexing the Cherry maintain the authority and the Power to molest the now weaker sex, man.

Maya Angelou uses an autobiographical form in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings to portray her childhood. The lessons she acquires as a child are depicted in positive scenes between her and her grandmother and other female figures in her life. Likewise, Maxine Hong Kingston portrays, in an arguably autobiographical form, her life lessons in Woman Warrior. She aligns herself matrilineally with her female ancestors and heritage. Struggles between her American self and the Chinese heritage her mother speaks of become her means for finding self-definition. In contrast, Sheri S. Tepper's fantasy novel A Plague of Angels, portrays a female utopian society against a backdrop of male dominated ruin. She aligns the female protagonist with nature and ecological concerns. The turn away from society that is patriarchal and destructive is made toward a society defined in ecofeminist terms of Earth Mothers, animal rights, and the health of the environment.

John Cleland, author of Fanny Hill or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, employs a female narrative voice, but his novel reinforces traditional gender roles of male domination and female submission. By co-opting his female narrator, Cleland makes Fanny appear to be a willing and available sexual partner. His pornographic novel depicts sexual situations that raise virile men to the position of authority and devalue both men and women who are submissive, not "masculine." The most devalued and objectified character in the novel is Fanny herself, even though the novel portrays her as happy and satisfied.

The feminist ideology Gioconda Belli develops in La mujer habitada is a critique of the dictatorial and/or patriarchal restrictions which oppress her women characters. In the novel, the protagonists, Itza a mythological woman warrior from the time of the Spanish Conquest, and Lavinia, a Sandinista guerillera during the Somoza regime, are revolutionary characters who transgress the limitations inherent in the traditional societal roles of "passive" females. Itza challenges the pre-Colonial and Colonial patriarchal ideology, while Lavinia seeks to undermine at once the official state discourse of the Somoza dictatorship, and the phallocentric revolutionary ideology of some of the Sandinistas. In the process, these female characters constitute themselves as subjects and challenge the male-centered canon that so often objectifies women and devalues their creativity.

The well-known Grimms' fairy tale "Sleeping Beauty" forms the subtext of two recent literary works, Rosario Ferre's novella "La bella durmiente" (1976) and Margaret Atwood's short story "Bluebeard's Egg" (1983). Both contemporary authors suggest that certain negative aspects inherent in the Sleeping Beauty paradigm should not persist in women's literature, unless the texts lead to transformation and self-realization of the heroines. This study demonstrates how the authors expose the fallacy in the paradigm, depart from it, and refigure it by transforming their heroines into characters quite distinct from the Grimm prototype. This study also suggests that Ferre's and Atwood's works serve as prototypes for feminine texts. As the characters distance themselves from hegemonic patriarchal traditions, each author's work is also removed from the referent of masculine literary traditions and returned to its origins, the oral tale.

Antonio Buero Vallejo is well-known for his modern Spanish tragedies. In La tejedora de suenos, Madrugada, and Irene o el tesoro, he presents three female protagonists, Penelope, Amalia, and Irene, who must struggle to overcome the boundaries placed on them by their assigned roles in society. Different from his male protagonists who resolve their problems within their normal environment, Buero Vallejo recognizes the inherent creativity of these women, who, in spite of their difficult circumstances and tragic flaws, find a solution to their challenging situations through the creation of alternate realities.

Ellen Glasgow's feminism is revealed in her fiction, especially through her characterization of women. In four representative novels, Glasgow's female characters underscore the problems of women--from the womanly woman of the Victorian era to the new woman of the twentieth century. In Virginia, Virginia Pendleton is the product of an education that teaches her to be a dutiful wife and mother yet neglects her personal growth. In The Sheltered Life, Eva Birdsong is a victim of the myth of Southern Womanhood and its unrealistic expectations. Glasgow also attempts to show that character is fate, and women can turn to their inner resources to solve their problems. Thus Dorinda Oakley of Barren Ground enters the man's world of farming, and Ada Fincastle of Vein of Iron relies on her inherited fortitude to triumph over personal disappointments and the forces of social change. In these novels, Glasgow exposes the conservative educational, religious, and social influences that impinge on the development of women as total human beings. Ellen Glasgow's contribution to the feminist movement lies in her commitment to what she called women's "liberation of personality."

In Eudora Welty's works, the importance of the mother-daughter relationship lies in its ability to expand the reader's understanding of the individual's search for enlightenment. As a wanderer acts and reacts to people and events, she is most often influenced by her mother, or mother-like figures, and other pairs around her. Welty's bonded women represent the historical, religious, psychological, and sociological studies of this interwoven human relationship; her characters are subtly crafted to develop a myriad of close and, at the same time, distant bonds. Welty emphasizes the mothers and daughters of Losing Battles, Delta Wedding, and The Optimist's Daughter though Virgie of The Golden Apples represents the strongest point for the conclusion that the mother-daughter relationship supports and enhances Welty's works.

Beyond the Victorian and Southern myths of women existed other levels of female autonomy and strength. In the stories of Kate Chopin, women characters perform social roles as wives, mothers, and hostesses; in addition, they live out other layers of existence in which they have greater control and freedom. Some, like Edna Pontellier in The Awakening, find an "inward life which questions." Others, like the protagonists of "The Kiss," "The Respectable Woman," "Lady of Bayou St. John," "At the 'Cadian Ball," "The Storm," and "Athenaise," find an outer life characterized by intrigue and manipulation. Chopin's women characters enact a stratified female consciousness that begins with manipulation and ends with a failed attempt at independent survival.