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CENTRO DE CULTURA ANGLO AMERICANA – CCAA
TEACHER’S COURSE
MILENA COSTA A. DE AZEVEDO
TERM PAPER
WOMEN AND MODERN LITERATURE
ANALYSING CHAPTER 24 OF CCAA’S “A BRIEF VIEW OF BRITISH LITERATURE”
CCAA Icaraí
2021
DEVELOPMENT
“The real revolution is women against men.”
“If we lead what is known as free lives, that is, lives like men, why shouldn’t we use the same
language.”
“One had to be much older than I was then to understand George’s relationship with his wife.
He had a fierce loyal compassion for her, the compassion of one victim for another.”
(Doris Lessing)
1. The changing role of women
Women have always been seen as submissive, housewives and those who take care of the
children while the man of the house works and does what he wants. This totally absurd vision
of the female gender has existed for millions of years, but with the arrival of modernity this
erroneous look at women has changed, as has their respective roles in society. With this,
women began to occupy work positions that were previously seen as men's jobs, and not only
that, but they began to have their own goals that were no longer the almost obligation of
getting married, having children and becoming a housewife.
In this context, why is it so important to talk about the change in the role of women in
society to British literature? The answer is simple: modern literature really didn't take long
when it came to investigating and recording the great event. Through modern literature, it
became possible to have access to literary works about women and their freedom, about their
love life that had just become free since they didn't need to become wives and housewives,
about their jobs and the whole new female universe that was starting to emerge. With that, it is
worth studying and analyzing Doris Lessing since she was a writer who stood out when the
subject is modern literature and women.
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2. Doris Lessing
The main concerns of Doris Lessing’s works are the very contemporary subjects of race
relations,political conflicts, the position of women, and psychiatry. It is extremely important
to comment on the fact that Doris does not fail to express her opinion in her works, as well as
many great names such as Daniel Defoe, Charles Dickens and Jane Austin. Also, it is worth
commenting on "The Golden Notebook" which is the most influential work of Doris Lessing,
in it there is a lot related to the female role in modern society.
3. The Golden Notebook
The Golden Notebook has autobiographical layers: the character Anna reflects elements of
author Doris Lessing's own life, while Anna writes an autobiographical novel about her
imagined Ella, who writes autobiographical stories. The structure of The Golden Notebook
also intertwines the political conflicts and emotional conflicts in the characters' lives.
Feminists also responded to the consciousness-raising aspect of The Golden Notebook.
Each of Anna's four notebooks reflects a different area of her life, and her experiences lead to
a larger statement about flawed society as a whole.
The idea behind consciousness-raising is that the personal experiences of women should not
be separated from the political movement of feminism. In fact, the personal experiences of
women reflect the political state of society.
Feminism and feminist theory often rejected traditional form and structure in art and
literature. The Feminist Art Movement considered rigid form to be a representation of
patriarchal society, a male-dominated hierarchy. Feminism and postmodernism often overlap;
both theoretical viewpoints can be seen in analysis of The Golden Notebook.
Although The Golden Notebook is often hailed by feminists as an important
consciousness-raising novel, Doris Lessing has notably downplayed a feminist interpretation
of her work. While she may not have set out to write a political novel, her work does illustrate
ideas that were relevant to the feminist movement, particularly in the sense that the personal is
political.
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https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-autobiography-1689148
https://www.thoughtco.com/feminist-consciousness-raising-groups-3528954
https://www.thoughtco.com/key-feminist-theorists-in-history-3529009
https://www.thoughtco.com/the-feminist-movement-in-art-3528959
https://www.thoughtco.com/patriarchal-society-feminism-definition-3528978
https://www.thoughtco.com/the-personal-is-political-slogan-origin-3528952
https://www.thoughtco.com/the-personal-is-political-slogan-origin-3528952
4. Nowadays
Although modern literature originated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries along with
the changing role of women in society, we still encounter problems when it comes to the
female gender and its rights. Although a lot has improved, it seems that some things simply do
not go forward, such as the fact that many women receive a salary that is lower than the one
of a man that is in the same company and in the same position, or the fact that people usually
think that the person who is forced to stop working to take care of children is necessarily the
woman and never, ever, the man.
Many things still need to change, women need to be respected in every way. The female
gender is not the possession of the male to be disrespected when out on the street, women are
no less intelligent than men to earn lower wages and much less stupid to have to accept an
explanation of everything as if they knew nothing. Today's society needs a huge change
regarding this matter even though this situation cannot change overnight.
Based on this discussion about the feminine in today's society, it is worth raising the
question about how the fact that women have their rights and an equal life in relation to men
affects men. Do men think that women should be disrespected in the streets for being nothing
more than an object instead of being human beings, that they should receive less since they
are not as capable as men or else that they should be submissive?
The truth is that you cannot know the real reason, you can only speculate. Although this
whole situation cannot be something that changes from one day to another, as mentioned
above, we can still change our actions so that, through small steps to big ones, we are
gradually changing this scenario. Not allowing a friend to disrespect your mother, girlfriend or
friend; not being silent when seeing an episode of machismo and trying to open up our minds
about women and society to understand that rights are unfortunately not equal are some
examples, among others, of small steps.
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