Speaking for Ourselves: Women in History and Literature Rejecting Dominant Narratives on the Human Condition
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Authors
LePage, June
Date of Issue
2024
Type
Presentation
Language
en_US
Subject Keywords
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Abstract
Until recently, the experiences and voices of women have predominantly been excluded, undermined, and ignored in western discourse on the human condition. The result of this is that men have historically dominated the conversation, and often hijacked the wisdom and contributions of women, making the male experience the normative and narrow definition of what it means to be human. An example of men undermining the narratives of women is illustrated in Praise of Folly by Desiderius Erasmus (1509) and his feminized personification of foolishness. The interjection of a man's thoughts into the image of a woman is not an uncommon phenomenon. Men's portrayal of women as figures such as Lady Liberty, Columbia, Lady Philosophy, or Mother Nature, reflects an idolized version of womanhood that ignores the reality of women's experience and leaves us with a skewed understanding of the human condition. In her 1792 work A Vindication of the Rights of Woman with Structures on Political and Moral Subjects, Mary Wollstonecraft challenges this narrative. By inserting herself into the European intellectual conversation of the time, Wollstonecraft argues how preempting a woman's experience does a great disservice to her and humanity in general. When Wollstonecraft prompts other authors to write and think in more nuanced and liberated fashions, later authors like Zora Neal Hurston embody the reclaiming of the feminine image and feminine voice by writing to reflect real women’s experiences as complex and dynamic humans. In her narrative Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), she speaks to a woman’s wisdom with the life of her character Janie, whom society tries to constrain as a black woman. Janie’s story illustrates the intersectionality and complexity of human nature that has been ignored for far too long; Wollstonecraft calls all women to help deconstruct the oppressive dominant narratives penned and perpetuated by men. By exploring Hurston’s novel, this presentation will argue that Wollstonecraft’s insightful critique continues to be relevant and challenge us today.
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