Women in literature – a significant portion of society and civilizations – have often been misrepresented, misunderstood and written primarily according to predisposed ideas and notions heavily dominated by toxic ideals of patriarchy, misogyny and gender roles. The roles and characters that women played were highly gendered, lacking agency and autonomy, and also removed from reality.
Although some periods in civilizations and societies around the world reflected the organic and tangible reality of women, this was in oppressive systems such as; Women were considered the property of men, women could not hold a job, could not survive on their own without male company, etc., but these characters and stories of women were written through the male gaze and the hegemonic power play of male writers and authors could never fully portray the female characters portray with honesty and angry reality.
Women often appear as flat characters, without depth and without due consideration of their reasoning and emotions. Women were either angry or promiscuous, evil, docile and pretty or just pretty beings whenever they were written through the male gaze. For example, look at how Charles Dickens talked about women and how John Osborne describes women in his plays. These male writers and authors often projected their inherent male superiority, their misogynistic attitudes, and the power that patriarchy gives them.
Due to the influence of global movements such as universal suffrage as well as intra-group feminist movements and women’s rights movements, things started taking different forms and spaces in literature, be it English, Hindi or Urdu. Note that decolonial studies and interpretations as well as subaltern perspectives and intersectionality played a large role in redefining women’s writings and stories in literature. And with more and more progressive movements around gender, queer literature and studies also developed.
Because of these many global and especially South Asian movements with great personalities such as Simone de Beauvoir, Elaine Showalter, Woolfe, Ismat Chutagai, Gayatri Spivak, etc., women and gender in literature have been examined, deconstructed and re-described. Now women wrote women through the female gaze. Women wrote men and other genders with a feminist and sensitive eye, without any power politics of male superiority.
For the historicity of literature, it is important to write and deconstruct the world perceived through the male gaze and to write the history of the world from the perspective and authenticity of women, with the highest promise, lived experiences and stories of women and other gender minorities to represent.
Be it Hindi literature, Urdu literature, English, African etc., women and other gender minorities found a place later in development when they finally no longer had to hide behind pseudonyms like George Elliot. They also found their voice through the power of prose and poetry, through the pen, only quite late in the development of history and literature. Even though they first fought and created this space, they have to say. Although some writers still portray women with misogynistic and gender biased ideas, the emboldened phase that women readers and writers are in would not allow this to affect their lives and literature.
To celebrate, highlight and honor the work of women and gender minorities who have re-described themselves, created a niche and significant space in literature and also fought for an authentic representation of women, FII invites contributions on the topic from January to September “Gender and Literature” on the 25th of the month.
Here are some of the topics that might help you put your thoughts together:
- Gender roles and literature
- Representation of women in literature
- Queer theory and literature
- Masculinity studies and representation
- Women in literature
- Queerness/Queer Representation in Literature
- The feminist politics of anonymity and pseudonyms
- Women’s personal accounts
- Feminist oral literature
- Literary honors and women
- Indian literature and feminism
- Own voices: literature and appropriation
- Caste and Gender in Literature
This list does not claim to be complete. Feel free to write about any topics within the topic that we may have missed here. Please note our Submission Guidelines before you send us your entries. You may email your submissions to shahinda@feminisminindia.com.
We look forward to your drafts and hope you enjoy writing!
