Fettery's article made me think of the literature that I have on my shelves in my study. How many of the texts contain female perspective? What about the movies as moving texts that I watch?
We live in a patriarchal system that has affected every facet of American life. The key phrase that struck me in her work was: To be American means to be male. A woman's only option for identifying herself with an American ideal is to associate male symbols and schemas.
I just wanted to post a few books I have and the male perspective they present:
1) Hatchet--Brian, a boy, learns how to live in the wild after his plane crashes.
2) Lord of the Flies
3) Animal Farm
4) The Inheritance Collection
I haven't done an exhaustive count of all my books, but in looking at these key texts, it's apparent that a male perspective is definitely dominant.
Toni Morrison, a well known poet and essayist wrote this piece with a similar motif--the repression of a people group in literature.
Morrison points out that Black identify in literature and life is being overshadowed by whiteness. She reveals points of political historical moments and movements as being rooted in blackness. I was intrigued with this argument and found it fascinating. I've always been an avid reader of "black literature," but I never really made the connection that Morrison made in relation to how blackness is infused in all writings because it provides the lens that we view/interpret other events.
The American Civil War--literature devoted to this topic must be interpreted through the lens of black slaves.
The Civil Rights Movement--which lead to better public schools for all--must be interpreted through the black identity as well.
Overall, Morrison makes the claim that literary criticism is not making room for the black lens of literary scholarship to be fully recognized and embraced.
We live in a patriarchal system that has affected every facet of American life. The key phrase that struck me in her work was: To be American means to be male. A woman's only option for identifying herself with an American ideal is to associate male symbols and schemas.
I just wanted to post a few books I have and the male perspective they present:
1) Hatchet--Brian, a boy, learns how to live in the wild after his plane crashes.
2) Lord of the Flies
3) Animal Farm
4) The Inheritance Collection
I haven't done an exhaustive count of all my books, but in looking at these key texts, it's apparent that a male perspective is definitely dominant.
Toni Morrison, a well known poet and essayist wrote this piece with a similar motif--the repression of a people group in literature.
Morrison points out that Black identify in literature and life is being overshadowed by whiteness. She reveals points of political historical moments and movements as being rooted in blackness. I was intrigued with this argument and found it fascinating. I've always been an avid reader of "black literature," but I never really made the connection that Morrison made in relation to how blackness is infused in all writings because it provides the lens that we view/interpret other events.
The American Civil War--literature devoted to this topic must be interpreted through the lens of black slaves.
The Civil Rights Movement--which lead to better public schools for all--must be interpreted through the black identity as well.
Overall, Morrison makes the claim that literary criticism is not making room for the black lens of literary scholarship to be fully recognized and embraced.
So, if I understand you correctly, Fetterley's critique of "American Literature" is still valid today, almost forty years later? That's pretty stunning.
ReplyDeleteDo schools still construct "American Literature" as male and are women authors and black or other minority authors, when they are taught, still not considered "American" or "universal" as the male authors who are taught?
Travis, you point to representative selections of books that have interested you as a reader. I have also wondered at my text selections, and many have become texts where I observed similarities, or potential similarities, to my life as man. Jeff offered a similar response to your description of reading "The Sign of the Beaver." Men and women will mention "chick flicks" or "chick lit" books, and I wonder what is actually meant by that. Is it that these books address mainly issues of women? Are they usually written by women? If so, how are those worlds constructed? And if there is a difference in how fictional worlds are constructed around gender, among other issues, what affect does it have on readers across genders? For example, I have often wondered how adolescent boys and girls view Holden in "Catcher in the Rye."
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