Enciclopedia Intima De La Mujer

Author : Donald J. Greiner
Publisher : Univ of South Carolina Press
ISBN 13 : 9780872498846
Total Pages : 152 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (988 download)

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Download or read book Women Without Men written by Donald J. Greiner and published by Univ of South Carolina Press. This book was released on 1993 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Donald J. Greiner's provocative new study evaluates the fiction of ten contemporary female novelists to ask questions about gender relations in American fiction. Looking closely at the reaction of female writers to what Greiner describes as a central paradigm of American literature - men bonding in the wilderness in an attempt to escape women and the social restrictions they represent - Greiner contends that female novelists have not only adopted the venerable model but also adapted it so that women venture into the wilderness while excluding men from the quest. Greiner first shows how such contemporary white male novelists as Frederick Busch, John Irving, and Larry Woiwode modify the literary model established by Cooper, Melville, and Twain to include women in the bonding process. He then argues that recent female novelists are not so eager to allow males into the wilderness or to bond with them. Rather than facilitate a closing of the gender gap, many contemporary female writers insist on separating the sexes. Greiner frames his analysis with discussions of prominent feminist literary theorists and feminist psychologists including Carolyn Heilbrun, Rachel Brownstein, Nancy Chodorow, Janice Raymond, and Judith Kegan Gardiner. From close readings of recent novels by Gloria Naylor, Marianne Wiggins, Joan Didion, Diane Johnson, Marilynne Robinson, Mona Simpson, Hilma Wolitzer, Meg Wolitzer, Joan Chase, and Lisa Alther, Greiner finds three significant differences in the way contemporary female novelists employ the quest plot: the patriarchal text is not repudiated but revised to accommodate female characters who readily accept the traditional masculine call to the quest; once outside the bounds of society, female bonds do not always hold; males are excluded from the bonding process. To contrast the gender exclusivity favored by contemporary female writers, Greiner ends his study with a discussion of bonding as portrayed by contemporary male novelist Douglas Ungar.