"A taste of the fine arts requires great cultivation, but not more than a taste for the virtuous affections, and both suppose that enlargement of mind which opens so many sources of mental pleasure. Why do people hurry to noisy scenes and crowded circles? I should answer, because they want activity of mind, because they have not cherished the virtues of the heart. They only therefore see and feel in the gross, and continually pine after variety, finding everything that is simple insipid."
From Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft (1792)
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759 - 1797)
Going back in time: we're in the 18th century, the century of the French and American Revolution, the age of Enlightment, the height of the Quing Dynasty and the decline of the Ottoman Empire. Yet, the mentioned citation seems contemporary in its appeal. Time to get to know this extraordinary author...
Mary Wollstonecraft was born the second of six children in London, UK. Not much is known from her early childhood, besides that from an early age on she was frustrated by the career options imposed on women with a confined financial background. Also that she imagined living in a female utopia, of living together with other women and supporting each other emotionally and financially. She almost reached her goal with her closest friend Fanny Blood. They succeeded at least in establishing a school together. Unfortunately, Fanny's health declined rapidly and Mary taking care of her friend abandoned the school which led to its failure. After Fanny's death, Mary wrote her first novel Mary, A Fiction (1788).
With the help of friends, Mary became a governess to a wealthy family in Ireland. But only one year later did she decide to quit her position and to become an author. Another radical decision since there were few female authors able to support themselves let alone authors in general. Nevertheless, Mary was a headstrong woman and with the assistance of the liberal publisher Joseph Johnson, who supported women writers in a time when women were still met with scepticism, she moved to London. She learned French and German, consequently translated various socio-political texts and wrote numerous reviews for Johnson's periodical, the Analytical Review. Johnson supported her and advanced payment to her first book Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (1787). In 1790, Mary, becoming more and more a fierce advocate of progress and rationality opposing aristocratic and ancestral traditions, wrote her pamphlet A Vindication of the Rights of Men in response to the conservative critique on the French Revolution by Edmund Burke. With it, she became instantly famous. Two years later her most famous and still available work was published: A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792), arguing that women are not naturally inferior to men but generally lack education.
During that time, Mary also attended Johnson's dinners where artists and radical thinkers met and exchanged their inventive ideas. It was at one of these dinners that Mary met her later husband, the political philosopher William Godwin. But Mary was more attracted by the artist Henry Fuseli/Johann Heinrich Füssli who was already married. At Mary's suggestion to form a living triangle, Henry immediately severed their friendship and Mary, humiliated, fled to France where she planned to participate in the French Revolution. While she indulged in the historical events, she met the American adventurer Gilbert Imlay who aroused her sexual interest. She fell passionately in love and gave birth to her fist daughter, Fanny Imlay in 1794. Though Gilbert protected Mary by registering her as his wife, he nevertheless left her as soon as they returned to England. Desperately trying to win Gilbert back, Mary went on a trip to Scandinavia with her baby daughter. In her travelogue Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark (1796), Mary describes her impressions as well as her emotional despair. But all attempts to gain Gilbert back failed and Mary returned to her literary life, becoming involved with Johnson's circle again.
Attracted by her Letters, William Godwin courted Mary and by the time she became pregnant a second time they decided to get married, revealing Mary's unmarried status with Gilbert. Godwin, himself, was criticised getting married at all since he had earlier advocated against marriage. Both lost many friends cause to their conduct. Nevertheless, they remained radical retaining their independence by moving into adjoining houses. Unfortunately, their happy and stable relationship would not last. After giving birth to her second daughter, Mary became infected with childbed fever and died 10 days later (Dr. Semmelweis' book on basic disinfection was only published 50 years later). William was devastated. Only six months later did he publish his Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Women, wanting to portray Mary with love and compassion, revealing her unconventional life. The book, though, had an opposite effect and distorted Mary's reputation for decades. It's been the suffragettes and feminists who rediscovered her ambitious ideas and appreciated her fight for the rights of women and her influence on the equality of women at an early stage. To feminists worldwide, Mary Wollstonecraft is no unknown author and her ideas and thoughts still reverberate though her life's story is less known. And if you always thought the idea of "living apart together" (LAT) is something new...
Yet another interesting detail:
Mary's and William's daughter took over the literary legacy and became the author of THE classic gothic novel still know today: Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus (1818) by Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin or better known as Mary Shelley. But that is a different story itself again...
Mary's and William's daughter took over the literary legacy and became the author of THE classic gothic novel still know today: Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus (1818) by Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin or better known as Mary Shelley. But that is a different story itself again...
Quote of the Month - January 2013
"My hope for the future is that the optimistic child within me will perhaps reawaken one day to a world where regional conflict and Western intervention are a thing of the past; where 'war' and 'power' will be outdated words; or where, at the very least, the word 'peace' will actually represent a realistic goal."
From "The Optimistic Child" by Nawal el Sa'adawi
From "The Optimistic Child" by Nawal el Sa'adawi
Nawal el Sa'adawi *1931
Nawal el Sa'adawi was born in Kafr Tahla, a small village in Egypt, as the eldest of nine children. Her father, a government official, had campaigned against the rule of the King and the British in the revolution of 1919 and was consequently dismissed from his post and moved to a village. Being a progressive thinker he saw to it that Nawal, as a girl, learned self-respect and to speak her mind. Unfortunately, her parents died at an early age which left her with the burden of providing for a large family. Nevertheless, she graduated as a medical doctor in 1955 from Cairo University. While she worked as a doctor in her birthplace, she witnessed the oppressions and inequalities that local women were facing. Similar to her father's story: the time she supported one of her female patients against domestic violence she was ordered to move to Cairo where she became Director of Public Health.
In 1969, her book Al-Mar'a wa Al-Jins (Women and Sex) was published in which she openly names the various forms of aggression against women's bodies, including female circumcision. The text became, similar to Simone de Beauvoir's Le Deuxième Sexe (The Second Sex, 1949), a major text for feminism in the Arabic World. As a result Nawal lost her job at the Ministry of Health as well as Assistant General Secretary at the Medical Association in Egypt. Still, she continued with her work and did extensive research on women and neurosis and even became the United Nation's Advisor for the Women's Progamme in Africa and Middle East. Being banned from an official health journal she supported publication of the feminist magazine Confrontation. Her constant activism lead to her imprisonment under President Anwar al-Sadat. In her memoir Mudhakkirati fi sijn annisa (Memoirs from the Women's Prison, 1983) she describes her time in prison. Next to that, she continued to publish numerous essays and books that are partly available in English. In 1988, Nawal had to leave Egypt when Islamists were bullying her and making her life in Egypt unbearable. She turned to teaching at Duke's University and the University of Washington in Seattle in the US. Eight years later, she returned to Egypt, where she still lives and participates at various political and feminist activism. Click on the link and you will find a video with Nawal el Sa'adawi interviewed on the Egyptian Spring Revolution in 2011.
Additionally, in 2012 Nawal received the Stig Dagerman Prize, a Swedish based prize awarded to a person or organisation, that "supports the significance [...] of the 'free word' (freedom of speech), promotes empathy and intercultural understanding." (www.dagerman.us/society/annual-award). To find a complete list of all her publications, please check her website: www.nawalsaadawi.net.
In 1969, her book Al-Mar'a wa Al-Jins (Women and Sex) was published in which she openly names the various forms of aggression against women's bodies, including female circumcision. The text became, similar to Simone de Beauvoir's Le Deuxième Sexe (The Second Sex, 1949), a major text for feminism in the Arabic World. As a result Nawal lost her job at the Ministry of Health as well as Assistant General Secretary at the Medical Association in Egypt. Still, she continued with her work and did extensive research on women and neurosis and even became the United Nation's Advisor for the Women's Progamme in Africa and Middle East. Being banned from an official health journal she supported publication of the feminist magazine Confrontation. Her constant activism lead to her imprisonment under President Anwar al-Sadat. In her memoir Mudhakkirati fi sijn annisa (Memoirs from the Women's Prison, 1983) she describes her time in prison. Next to that, she continued to publish numerous essays and books that are partly available in English. In 1988, Nawal had to leave Egypt when Islamists were bullying her and making her life in Egypt unbearable. She turned to teaching at Duke's University and the University of Washington in Seattle in the US. Eight years later, she returned to Egypt, where she still lives and participates at various political and feminist activism. Click on the link and you will find a video with Nawal el Sa'adawi interviewed on the Egyptian Spring Revolution in 2011.
Additionally, in 2012 Nawal received the Stig Dagerman Prize, a Swedish based prize awarded to a person or organisation, that "supports the significance [...] of the 'free word' (freedom of speech), promotes empathy and intercultural understanding." (www.dagerman.us/society/annual-award). To find a complete list of all her publications, please check her website: www.nawalsaadawi.net.
The Other Way Round...
The Western Christian calendar draws to its close of 2012...additionally, my list of female authors having read at the Edinburgh Book Festival in August 2011 is coming to its end. I had a wonderful time introducing the various authors to you and I desperately hope that you had a good read. The more do I hope that you were inspired to read on and read the work of the various authors yourself!!!
I am closing the circle with poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy having the final say for this year. She already had her say in October 2011 as the first author to be mentioned on my new blog. Turn to the page for more information on this outstanding poet.
BUT before Carol takes the stage...remember: this blog will continue!
It only will be a different story with different (female) authors - as interesting as before and worth checking it monthly.
I really look forward to welcoming you back in January 2013 with another Quote/Poem of the Month!
Yours,
Stefanie
I am closing the circle with poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy having the final say for this year. She already had her say in October 2011 as the first author to be mentioned on my new blog. Turn to the page for more information on this outstanding poet.
BUT before Carol takes the stage...remember: this blog will continue!
It only will be a different story with different (female) authors - as interesting as before and worth checking it monthly.
I really look forward to welcoming you back in January 2013 with another Quote/Poem of the Month!
Yours,
Stefanie
Poet of the Month - December 2012
The Bee Carol
Silently on Christmas Eve,
the turn of midnight's key;
all the garden locked in ice -
a silver frieze -
except the winter cluster of the bees.
Flightless now and shivering,
around their Queen they cling;
every bee a gift of heat;
she will not freeze
within the winter cluster of the bees.
a single golden jar;
let me taste the sweetness there,
but honey leave
to feed the winter cluster of the bees.
Come with me on Christmas Eve
to see the silent hive -
trembling stars cloistered above -
and then believe,
bless the winter cluster of the bees.
From The Bees by Carol Ann Duffy (2011)
Poem of the Month - November 2012
Nest
Sunrise walk over the hill,
grass wet with morning,
August pavement steaming sun,
mud like black tea, thick murmur
of traffic beyond the trees. You
want to stall the day, pause the rush
to the streetcar, you sit on a worn bench
hover in grey humidity. At your feet
a nest of needles and twigs, a split of bark
fanned like a sparrow's wing. You imagine
placing it in your briefcase among folders
and files you never got to, a bruised pear
pressed against tupperwared salad
that you will likely trash for a slice
of pizza at noon, pen and newspaper -
and today's dreadful headline:
the child dismembered
and scattered across the city.
You lean forward,
pick it up, hold it in the palm
of your hand - warmed by sun,
no bark, no fallen limb of tree,
soft brown feathers, pinched blue
skin and a tiny smooth-bone shoulder.
And the nest, the earth-and-twig hollow
carved by grief, the bell-shaped void
where the rest of the bird went missing.
From Narcissus Unfolding by Jim Nason (2011)
Sunrise walk over the hill,
grass wet with morning,
August pavement steaming sun,
mud like black tea, thick murmur
of traffic beyond the trees. You
want to stall the day, pause the rush
to the streetcar, you sit on a worn bench
hover in grey humidity. At your feet
a nest of needles and twigs, a split of bark
fanned like a sparrow's wing. You imagine
placing it in your briefcase among folders
and files you never got to, a bruised pear
pressed against tupperwared salad
that you will likely trash for a slice
of pizza at noon, pen and newspaper -
and today's dreadful headline:
the child dismembered
and scattered across the city.
You lean forward,
pick it up, hold it in the palm
of your hand - warmed by sun,
no bark, no fallen limb of tree,
soft brown feathers, pinched blue
skin and a tiny smooth-bone shoulder.
And the nest, the earth-and-twig hollow
carved by grief, the bell-shaped void
where the rest of the bird went missing.
From Narcissus Unfolding by Jim Nason (2011)
Jim Nason *1957
The exception proves the rule...
Though the aim of this blog is to introduce lesser known female authors I couldn't possibly leave Jim Nason, another Canadian poet, behind. Having introduced Maureen Hynes and Ruth Roach Pierson, I decided that he deserves to be presented on this blog and made known to a wider audience. Additionally, all three are very close as Maureen wrote a critical praise for the back cover of his latest collection Narcissus Unfolding: "[...] Nason's clear-eyed gaze is searing, his perceptions of the natural world and the human startling. His natural musicality combines with the honesty of his poems to bring us closer to our wishes, failings, emotional truths." (Frontenac House Ltd., 2011). Honesty and truth recur in various of Jim's interviews: "I am most influenced by social activists like Allen Ginsberg and Nikky Finney and I want to be the kind of poet who is brave enough to tell the truth, no matter what." (JN on BCP, 1/2012) and furthermore: "I try to tell the truth about what I see and know about the world. I happen to know a fair amount from my personal life experiences but also from my work in social services." (JN on Xtra!, 2/2012). Being a social worker, Jim can reap from his daily observations, while transforming it into an art form which gives him the opportunity to express his inner wisdom: life, its smells, its noises, its limits.
Born in Montreal, Canada, Jim had a better start as a poet than Maureen (see October, 2012): The poem he wrote as an undergraduate won a prize! And in the meantime he has published The Housekeeping Journals (2007), a novel, and The Girl on the Escalator (2011), a short story collection, as well as three books of poetry: If Lips Were as Red (1991?), The Fist of Remembering (2006), and Narcissus Unfolding (2011), the second being his account of his partner's death from cancer. He has been a finalist for the CBC Literary Award in both poetry and fiction categories and been published in numerous literary journals and anthologies across North America. His success isn't so surprising knowing his credo: "Be the best poet you can be every time!" Working fulltime as a social worker in Toronto, he gets up early in the morning to write. Jim: "I cherish the opportunity to sit with language and appreciate what is revealed through the disciple of the poetic process.[...] The best part of writing for me, by far, is the sense of surprise I get when I have truly surrendered to the process, and the words take me to a place I had no idea existed." (JN on BCP) Like a painter, Jim pays close attention to the things around him. Combined with his discipline, he surely deserves Maureen's praise. Take your time to listen to Jim reading himself from his latest book of poems:
Though the aim of this blog is to introduce lesser known female authors I couldn't possibly leave Jim Nason, another Canadian poet, behind. Having introduced Maureen Hynes and Ruth Roach Pierson, I decided that he deserves to be presented on this blog and made known to a wider audience. Additionally, all three are very close as Maureen wrote a critical praise for the back cover of his latest collection Narcissus Unfolding: "[...] Nason's clear-eyed gaze is searing, his perceptions of the natural world and the human startling. His natural musicality combines with the honesty of his poems to bring us closer to our wishes, failings, emotional truths." (Frontenac House Ltd., 2011). Honesty and truth recur in various of Jim's interviews: "I am most influenced by social activists like Allen Ginsberg and Nikky Finney and I want to be the kind of poet who is brave enough to tell the truth, no matter what." (JN on BCP, 1/2012) and furthermore: "I try to tell the truth about what I see and know about the world. I happen to know a fair amount from my personal life experiences but also from my work in social services." (JN on Xtra!, 2/2012). Being a social worker, Jim can reap from his daily observations, while transforming it into an art form which gives him the opportunity to express his inner wisdom: life, its smells, its noises, its limits.
Born in Montreal, Canada, Jim had a better start as a poet than Maureen (see October, 2012): The poem he wrote as an undergraduate won a prize! And in the meantime he has published The Housekeeping Journals (2007), a novel, and The Girl on the Escalator (2011), a short story collection, as well as three books of poetry: If Lips Were as Red (1991?), The Fist of Remembering (2006), and Narcissus Unfolding (2011), the second being his account of his partner's death from cancer. He has been a finalist for the CBC Literary Award in both poetry and fiction categories and been published in numerous literary journals and anthologies across North America. His success isn't so surprising knowing his credo: "Be the best poet you can be every time!" Working fulltime as a social worker in Toronto, he gets up early in the morning to write. Jim: "I cherish the opportunity to sit with language and appreciate what is revealed through the disciple of the poetic process.[...] The best part of writing for me, by far, is the sense of surprise I get when I have truly surrendered to the process, and the words take me to a place I had no idea existed." (JN on BCP) Like a painter, Jim pays close attention to the things around him. Combined with his discipline, he surely deserves Maureen's praise. Take your time to listen to Jim reading himself from his latest book of poems:
P.S.: Did I succeed in getting you curious about the currenct Canadian poetry community? Go ahead and subscribe to the website of CV2:The Canadian Journal of Poetry and Critical Writing. Enjoy and spread the word!
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