writingwomen

And now, the time has come

Okay girls and boy, the course is well over and many of you have graduated — and it was wonderful to watch you all crossing that stage! — and I am going to shut down this blog. It will remain on-line as an archive, but no-one will be able to post or comment. If you, the former students, or anyone else who has stumbled across this space, want to get in touch, you can e-mail me at mjones at unbsj dot ca.

Oh, and I just did something stupid; I took all your names off the authors list in an effort to clean things up, but this had the unforeseen (to me) consequence of stripping your names from your individual entries. I'm very sorry! Readers, anything authored by "webasst" was really authored by one of the students in this class.

Sigh.

Final grades; final stuff

Your exam and participation marks have been posted to WebCT, and the final grades have been submitted electronically (my Dept. chair has to sign off on them, and then they go to the Registrar. This usually happens fairly quickly).

Any questions, comments, or complaints, I am here.

Remember, your finished assignments are ready to be picked up. If you can't get in but would like me to mail them, please let me know your mailing address. I didn't write as much as I usually do on your assignments because it is so late in the year, but I am more than happy to discuss any of them with you.

Web stuff: I hope you will leave your web pages up, if you are able. And, anyone still planning to blog? If so, drop me a line...

Again, I'd like to say how much I enjoyed the class. You were an excellent group, and did some fine work. Hope to see some of you in future courses, and the very best of luck to those who are graduating.

And keep on reading and writing!

Yours,
Dr. J.

Blog marks

Blog marks are posted; exams will follow soon. I've printed out comments for each of you. You can pick them up in the Hum. and Lang. office, I could stick them to the outside door for anyone who can only drop by outside office hours, or I could mail them to anyone who can't get in to campus. Let me know your pleasure.

I appreciate your patience; I've had a hellish month, healthwise. But back on track now.

I'll let you know here when the final marks are done.

Dr. J.

Final thoughts

You have been a great class. I have enjoyed our discussions immensely — even when off-topic — as well as reading your blogs and your other work.

I want to wish all of you the best of luck on the exam, whichever form you choose. And I hope that I see each of you again, perhaps in another course. Or on a book jacket. (Please, not on Jerry Springer!)

I feel that we really came together and made something interesting. Thank you.

You go, Girlfriend!

Anybody else besides me notice that there was a missing element in all of our readings?

Let me start at the beginning (of my thought process that lead to the above question)

It's midnightish and I'm just getting home from a farewell party for a friend of mine who is packing up and heading west to greener career pastures. It was a great night. There was plenty of food, fun stories and best of all, the party poopers left early so us all-nighters let our hair down and our belt buckles out a notch while we belly laughed and hooted for three hours straight.

We weren't the most intellectual crowd, in fact, our finale consisted of progressively more horrifying or hilarious birthing stories, (which unfortunately climaxed at about the same time that Carmelle's husband thought it safe to return - boy was he wrong!) but, there was something so human and basic and right about spending that time together with my group of girlfriends that it started me thinking.

Which brings me back to my question. Did anyone notice that there was a missing element in all our readings?

The women characters or writers we studied in this term seem alienated by either their craft or their situation from other women. Their relationships with men were bad, but their relationships with women - if they had any - seemed even less meaningless. Margery Kemp is so disassociated that she refers to herself in her text as, "This Creature". And although Mary Wollstonecraft believes that women are potentially capable and rational, she finds that "The conduct and manners of women, in fact, evidently prove that their minds are not in a healthy state".

It would seem that our authors and/or the characters they create are alienated or alienating. Where was Mary W's posse when she was contemplating her controversial thoughts? Did she sit around with the girls and say, "You know, you would be way smarter and useful if it wasn't for the crappy education card you were dealt." Did they respond, "Gee Mary, I never thought of it that way. Maybe you should write book about that. You go, Girlfriend! or did Mary work by herself in her own little universe - which is what it seems from her writing. Could Evelina (A character from another course but same time frame) have had any close relationships stronger than the reported superficial interactions with family and friends during her coming of age story?

Did women have strong and energizing relationships with their friends in the 18th Century like we do now, or is this something new that has only become valued in our time and place? Did the 18th C. "art of conversation" undermine the potential for spontenaity and deep and fulfilling relationships that are possible now. Was the feminine community somehow different in that time or was it just something that didn't happen to make it to the written page? I'm curious about this, because in all these readings by women in writing, none of them is about unity or belonging. Perhaps it's the selections, perhaps it's just the style of the time, or maybe there really was a different level of interaction among women.

Any thoughts, fellow thinkers?

chastity/haywood

I hope I did not put this blog in twice.
An interesting statement about Haywood.
"There is no shame to be found in the propriety with which Haywood’s evolution as an author took her, as those were the true restrictions experienced by women of her class and of her time. The early challenges and the heated controversy that were elicited by her early works may have left her in a historical position of obscurity but they prove she was making an attempt to alter a system that left female authors unrecognized outside of infamy. Looking back at her works and the biographical information available for her leaves a modern literary historian happily intrigued by her narrative and her life and there is nothing like a mystery to engage modern thought on historical evolution in literature or life."

Eliza Haywood and “The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless” Patterson

Chastity and Thoughtless
I found it really interesting in class today when we were discussing the fact that Betsy was not the chaste virgin that would normally be rewarded in one of these types novels. I am surprised she was not more criticized for not upholding the virtue of chastity in this particular piece. Although this is a cautionary tail she does not seem to be cautioning towards the loss of innocence, but more advocating a woman’s right to make her own choices in life. I do wonder if her audience at this time caught on to this fact on conscious level or not.

Final Blogs

I just realized I forgot to blog about Delarivier Manley and Eliza Haywood so here are my thoughts on both authors:

Delarivier Manley

I enjoyed the overall message from The Adventures of Rivella although I was at times a bit confused as to what was going on and who was speaking. I wish that I had noticed the Key to Rivella that is in the back of the book because that would have greatly lessened the confusion. I always read with a pen and found myself underlining quite a few quotes many of which I commented on in class. I found that the very first page in this proto-novel (Sorry Vanessa I know you think it’s a novel) set a feminist tone because it states: “I have often heard her say, if she had been a man, she had been without fault” (Manley, 47). Another really good part in the proto-novel talks about how a woman’s reputation can be easily damaged but never repaired “She read her a learned lecture upon the ill-nature of the world, that would never restore a woman’s reputation, how innocent soever she really were, if appearances proved to be against her” (Manley, 62). This line really speaks to the overall position of women that has come up again and again throughout the course and that is that women are held to a different standard than men.

Eliza Haywood

I have to agree with what Courtney said in class and that is that you really have to learn how to read literature from the 17th and 18th century. I really enjoyed reading Fantomina after we discussed it in class because, I had a basic summary of what was going to happen so it kept me on track if the language became a bit confusing. One thing that I found in Fantomina that I do not think that we touched on in class is how it seems like Beauplaisir rapes Fantomina. Although she still pursues him perhaps it was not a rape but it definitely read like a rape. I came across a good journal article on EBSCO that discusses Haywood’s fiction if anyone is searching for secondary material still for their take-homes check out EBSco host. Anyway the point is that between the article and what we talked about in class I have really come to appreciate Haywood’s writing. I thought that the way she depicted Miss Forward’s experience being raped and the unhappy marriage that Miss Thoughtless feels trapped in spoke clearly to the position of women and related to everything we have studied in the course.

My Overall Thoughts on the Course

I must admit at the beginning of the semester I had some doubts as to whether or not I should take this course. However I am really glad that I chose to take it. The group of women writers focused on in this course are crucial to the liberation of other women writers. Before this course I had knowledge of only Mary Wollstonecraft. By learning about the struggle though all these different types of writing such as: letters, poetry, novels, speeches etc., I have learned to appreciate to an even further extent my position as a woman in life. It is because of women like these that I can have an opinion without consequence, (although that was not the case for Dixie Chick Natalie Maines when she spoke out about President Bush) , I can choose to marry whoever I wish and I can write about and become educated on any subject I desire. I am proud to call myself a feminist and I now have better knowledge to refer to when speaking out on the issue of women. When you asked us about influential writers at the first of the year I could only name two or three women, now I can name many that rightfully deserve to be part of that canon.

Overview

This class was a great class to take. I didn't really know what to expect when i first signed up for the class. This class has been an eye opener. I never knew the struggles that female writers were put through. Each woman made it just a bit easier for the next. It amazes me how these women were able to stand up and not back down after the harsh critism they received. I, myself, would have been able to handle critism if it had to do with my writings but I don't think I would be able handle them critizing my life. All of these women were put through horrible critism and I think it only made them stronger and more determined. Theer determination to be heard made it so that other woman writers could be looked upon with more respect. Without these women putting up with what the did, we wouldn't have many of the amazing women writers we have now. Or many of us wouldn't have the freedom to write what we want to write. Each one of these helped push foward. Some made much larger contributions then others but none was unnoticed.

The Rover

I really enjoyed reading Aphra Behn's play. It was completely different from most of the other works that we have read. It was interesting to see all the characters interacting with one another. From the beginning of the play you see FLorinda and Hellena trying to break free from the male control over them. Florinda does not want to marry some old, rich man that her father wants or her brother's friend. She just wants to be with the man that she loves. Hellena on the other hand, would like to be in a relationship and marry someone but she is being sent to a convent. It is interesting to see how the men in the play want to keep the control over the women. Even Angellica, who controls her own actions, in the end succombs to the male control. The men try to stay in control. Florinda's brother is very instistent on her marrying his friend and would do anything to make that happen. When Blunt get two- timed by Lucetta, he realized that he lost control. He almost rapes Florinda in hopes of regaining control again. The ending almost reminds me of a fairy tale except for one catch. All the couples were finally able to be together. Angellica is the only one who does not get what she wants. This proves to be her untimely end. Most of the other women were able to overcome the control that was placed on them, she fell over it. She was destroyed by letting the control she had go into the hands of a man. The play was funny in parts and I could see how some parts of the play might be considered "improper" (mostly the almost rape sences).

Katherine Philips and Aphra Behn

Both of these women were mothers who lost children. Both of their poems on losing their children are both similar and different. They both talk about losing a child shorty after birth and that grief thatcame with that. How they differ is what exactly is said in the poems. In Philips, we get to see just how much grief she is feeling because of her lost. She describes that things won't be that same without him. He was there one minute then gone the next "I did but see him, and disappeared." the main theme of her poem is the grief she feels and that her tears and sorrows are now her writings.

Aphra Behn's poem is quite different. She does not describe the grief she is feeling over her lost child but describing the happy things that he will be experiencing in heaven. She begins the poem, talking about the baby's tomb and it's filled with sweetness and innocence. She talks about the beautiful things that he will see while in heaven. You get the sense that she is happy that the child is in a better place filled with better things.

Both of these poems have to do with losing a child but take different approachs as to describing the lost. Philips takes on the prespective of the grieving mother trying to overcome the lost of her baby; while Behn is describing the wonderful things her baby will experience in heaven. Losing a child would be hard for any mother to go through. Both of these mothers had different ways of describing this lost. I can't imagine going through that kinf od pain. But you can see the their writing helped them get through the lost of their children.

Margery Kempe

I had a hard time understanding this book from the moment I started reading it. The book just seems too unrealistic in these times. It's hard to understand how someone could be that devoted to God in this day in age. Religion has been taken so much out of our society that it's just hard to imagine anyone being like thta. Sometimes it was hard to even believe that God had really told her to do something or if she just used God as her way of not having to do something. I don't really understand why she would have even bothered to get married if she didn't want her husband to touch her let alone sleep with her. Her children was another mystery. We know that she had many children but nothing is mentioned about what happened to them aside from one of her sons. She seemed to be so devoted to God that she didn't even care or take care about her own children.

Julian of Norwich

It was interesting to read her quotations expressing God as our Mother. I had always been raised to believe that God was a male. Never did I ever think God as a female or would have taken on a female role. I also find it interesting that wisdom is being credited to females "God Almighty is our natural father and God all-wisdom is our natural mother..." It's different to see wisdom being credited to females considering it took hundreds of years for females to obtain knowledge and wisdom. It is also different to see God being placed in a female role ex. motherhood. "To place motherhood as properties belong natural love, wisdom and knowledge-- and this is God." When you actually think about it that quote is true. God is everything that it describes, we just would not normally think of it that way becasue God has always been a man. Her writings chagne your prespective on how you view God. There has been a standardization of what kind of role God has. Female roles were just not really thought of. We seem to be in such a male dominating society that we could not possibly believe that out "creator" could be anything but a male.

biography Burney

A tiny note about Burney.
Traditionally when women created biographies it was often family biographies honoring the patriarch of the family. Francis Burney resists this form and writes journals about her personal life and literary endeavors. Instead of honoring the patriarchal she presents herself in a fairly uninhibited way. As we talked about in class many critics found she talked too much about herself, but they were probably stuck on old ideas about what writing was. I would be very interested in reading one Burney’s novels some time.(my summer reading list keeps growing)
Does anyone have any good online sources for articles? I dug alittle through our library, but couldnt find anything on her journals.

“such deeply rooted prejudices have clouded

I realized that I enjoyed reading Wolstencraft, but never made a blog about her . I am not sure if I have anything remotely intelligent to say, but I did find much of this piece still applicable to this century and the past.

Wolstencraft in the vindication of rights questions many of the deeply rooted aspects of humanity: “such deeply rooted prejudices have clouded
reason” It is interesting to see a woman openly criticizing and questioning prejudice beliefs after reading about so many woman persecuted for far smaller statements. Many parts of this text are even applicable today, for example she questions why people have prejudices and speaks of people using half-witted reason to defend themselves . How are those questions any different from the questions we ask now about sexism, racism, homophobia ect..: “Will men never be wise?”.

I love when Wolstencroft goes on to criticize the statement Milton made about women being soft and frail. It as though anger from centuries of women is built up in Wolstendrofts words:
“How grossly do they insult us, who thus advise us only to render
ourselves gentle, domestic brutes!”

take home

Can we email the take home and pass in a hard copy like later that morning???