Annotated Bibliography for Amelia Lanyer’s “Eve’s Apology” Thesis: Amelia Lanyers “Eve’s Apology is one of the earliest feminist poem that explores and defends women from the accusation of women being at fault for the original sin. This poem also explores the role of women during the 15th century and Lanyer portrays it from a feminist perspective. Lanyer also analyzes the issue of women in society that s also common in Marxism. Woods, Susanne. Seventeenth-Century British Nondramatic Poets: First Series. Vol. 121 (1992) In this Bibliography written by Susanne Woods, the author analyzes the life of Amelia Lanyer and how her life story contributes to the many poems she wrote. Lanyer is considered to be the first women to ever publish collection …show more content…
It starts out with the idea of Patriarchy. Patriarchy as defined in the book is “rule of society and culture by men”. This is interesting because during the time lanyer was alive, pretty much everything was controlled by men and anything done by women is viewed as unclean and sinful; because of this feminist literature was not common. Feminist critics say that the first act of a feminist critic is to become or resist the male mind that has been implanted. This allows for these critics to challenge this system of patriarchy that has been planted not only in literature but also in culture as well. The book pints out a couple of great minds that were against women and their rights which included Charles Darwin for calling women” a past and lower state of civilization”. This shows that humanity has been against women for a very long time. The feminist criticisms main point is to construct a female frame work for analysis of women’s literature and female’s voice partake in it instead of male; this definition of Gynocriticism as described in the book is named by Elaine Showalter. Overall, the whole point of the feminist criticism movement is to make sure a woman’s pint of view and voice is heard loud and clear from any type of literature
Throughout a collection of Gwen Harwood’s poems is the exploration of women during the 1950’s-90’s and their roles in society as it evolved in its acceptance of allowing a woman equal say in her identity. (struggling to end this essay)
One definition of gender is the membership of a word or grammatical form, or an inflectional form showing membership, in such a class. Gender critics take masculinity and feminism, as well as male and female, and use those theories to analyze writings. In books, or other writings, masculinity and feminism are used in order to describe how a character is seen by other characters. Feminism is the doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men. It is also a feminine character. After the women’s rights movement, women began to write works and put in their own views and beliefs. This era became known as the feminist writing era. Women felt that by writing their feelings and then getting their works published, that people would see why women should be equal to men.
This book is a feminist book because it tries to show the power of the women. It tries to show women can be as strong as men in hard situations. Butler wants to everyone knows that women could make good decisions too and they are able to do that without anyones help. She made Lauren a leader, an intelegent woman to change the people’s view about women, specially on her time.
Throughout history, women have struggled with, and fought against oppression. They have been held back and weighed down by the sexist ideas of a male dominated society which has controlled cultural, economic and political ideas and structure. During the mid-1800’s to early 1900’s women became more vocal and rebuked sexism and the role that had been defined for them. Fighting with the powerful written word, women sought a voice, equality amongst men and an identity outside of their family. In many literary writings, especially by women, during the mid-1800’s to early 1900’s, we see symbols of oppression and the search for gender equality in society. Writing based on their own experiences, had it not been for the works of Susan Glaspell, Kate Chopin, and similar feminist authors of their time, we may not have seen a reform movement to improve gender roles in a culture in which women had been overshadowed by men.
To understand feminism in the novel, one must first understand the feminist lens itself. OWL Purdue describes the lens as “the ways in which literature (and other cultural productions) reinforce or undermine the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women” (Purdue). Feminism acts as both a commitment and a political movement that wants to end sexism in all forms. Most feminists generally disagree on many topics of the subject, however all have one common goal. These aspects affect The Things They Carry in a plethora of ways, mostly due to the fact that gender roles is a main theme. There are negative and positive aspects of the feminist lens. Positive contains the empowering of women and equality, whereas negative pertains to oppression and unequal rights. Both are covered in The Things They Carried from sex symbols to battle tor...
In summary, the account for a woman’s femininity is primarily encouraged by man. Wollstonecraft inspires readers as she debates the right for woman equality to man, with most, if not all females agreeing with her argument and powerful ideas. Thus it is possible to conclude that the influence of academic literature does complicate everyday contemporary understanding, as reality of the day has differing points of view in writing. According to the referenced literature, woman in contemporary society are considered are flaw of nature however observed by women unreasonably.
What is Feminism? How does feminism affect the world we live in today? Was feminism always present in history, and if so why was it such a struggle for women to gain the respect they rightly deserve? Many authors are able to express their feelings and passions about this subject within their writing. When reading literary works, one can sense the different feminist stages depending on the timeframe that the writing takes place. Two such works are ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ by, Charlotte Gilman and ‘Everyday Use’ by, Alice Walker; the feminist views within each story are very apparent by the era each author lives in. It is evident that a matter of fifty years can change the stance of an author’s writing; in one story the main character is a confident and strong willed young woman looking to voice her feminist views on the world, while the other story’s main character is a woman trying to hold on to her voice in a man’s world which is driving her insane.
Barnstone, Aliki, and Willis Barnstone. A book of women poets. New York: Schocken Books, 1980. Print.
Published in 1696, the authorship of An Essay in Defence of the Female sex has been a subject of debate for a long time. Initially the work had been attributed to the contemporary author of Judith Drake, Mary Astell. However this controversy has been cleared with Judith Drake as the decided author of this work. The controversy perhaps emanated from the fact that no author had been indicated on the letter. It was only stated, ‘Written by a lady’. This has been interpreted by some literary analysts as a having been done deliberately by the author to emphasize her message of feminism, the key theme in the work. (Hannah, 2006).
Women and men fear the thought of an empowered woman and the thought of feminism. Women fear that will be punished by men if they stand against them and fear that being a feminist will make them cruel and lonely. Men fear that women will one day rise and surpass them. But it is with these women that great change can come. Being a feminist does not require a person to hate men nor does it isolate a person from the rest of the world. In both texts we witnessed that there are people who reinforce conventional views of gender roles and those who challenge them. The life is a feminist is challenging but much more rewarding at the same time.
Throughout literature’s history, female authors have been widely recognized for their groundbreaking and eye-opening accounts of what it means to be a woman in society. In most cases of early literature, women are portrayed as weak and unintelligent characters who rely solely on their male counterparts. Also during this time period, it would be shocking to have women characters in some stories, especially since their purpose is only secondary to that of the male protagonist. But, in the late 17th to early 18th century, a crop of courageous women began publishing their works, beginning the literary feminist movement. Together, Aphra Behn, Charlotte Smith, Fanny Burney, and Mary Wollstonecraft challenge the status quo of what it means to be a woman during the time of the Restoration Era and give authors and essayists of the modern day, such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a platform to become powerful, influential writers of the future.
In Eve’s Apology in Defense of Women, the word “apology” more accurately means “defense” around the early 15th century, so therefore, Lanyer does not apologize for Eve’s behaviour; instead, she creates a persuasive argument emphasizing the need for women to become equals with men. Even though Lanyer carved her mark in history as the first woman to pursue a fight against patronage through literature, one could easily flip her argument and discredit her ideas because her lack of logical and biblical foundation. Her arguments against Pontius Pilate, her claim of Adam’s sin being more immense, and her defense of Eve do not have any solid foundations in biblical literature, nor are they built around enough logic to create a solid argument. Lanyer’s
Born in the mid 1500s, Aemilia Lanyer, was a girl who always stood up for her beliefs. She began writing poetry and put all her poems in a book called “Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum”. Within this book of her poetry are the poems titled “Eve’s Apology in Defense of Women” and “To The Lady Lucie”. Aemilia was an intelligent and strong woman who stood up for her beliefs and did not go with what society said during those days; the themes within her poems show her views on women empowerment. To begin with, Aemilia was born in 1569 to Baptist Bassano and Margaret Johnson.
SETTINGS The settings, or places and times, of 'Eve's Diary' are interesting because they are implied. The characters are Adam and Eve, and we know from this and the Bible story that the garden they live in is the Garden of Eden, and the time is the beginning of the Earth. This matches Eve's descriptions of the world as new, and the garden as full of beautiful plants and animals of every kind.
Why has this book become so popular in rapid time? Why are women flocking to buy the book and why are they talking about it with their friends? More importantly, why was I a part of the craze? These are all valid questions I would like to find answers to. In my opinion, the book negatively portrays women, and yet women, and some men, are still reading it. It is alarming that so many readers are blinded by the message of the book because they are so wrapped in the content. This is why I find the book worth studying. In order to find answers to my questions, I will look to feminist criticism to better understand my topic.