Alcuin Blamires
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198186304
- eISBN:
- 9780191674501
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198186304.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
Misogyny is of course not the whole story of medieval discourse on women: medieval culture also envisaged a case for women. But hitherto studies of profeminine attitudes in that period's culture have ...
More
Misogyny is of course not the whole story of medieval discourse on women: medieval culture also envisaged a case for women. But hitherto studies of profeminine attitudes in that period's culture have tended to concentrate on courtly literature, on female visionary writings, or on attempts to transcend misogyny by major authors such as Christine de Pizan and Chaucer. This book sets out to demonstrate something different: that there existed from early in the Middle Ages a corpus of substantial traditions in defence of women, on which the more familiar authors drew, and that this corpus itself consolidated strands of profeminine thought that had been present as far back as the patristic literature of the 4th century. The book surveys extant writings formally defending women in the Middle Ages; identifies a source for profeminine argument in biblical apocrypha; offers a series of explorations of the background and circulation of central arguments on behalf of women; and seeks to situate relevant texts by Christine de Pizan, Chaucer, Abelard, and Hrotsvitha in relation to these arguments. Topics covered range from the privileges of women, and pro-Eve polemic, to the social and moral strengths attributed to women, and to the powerful models frequently disruptive of patriarchal complacency presented by Old and New Testament women. The contribution made by these emphases (which are not to be confused with feminism in a modern sense) to medieval constructions of gender is throughout critically assessed.Less
Misogyny is of course not the whole story of medieval discourse on women: medieval culture also envisaged a case for women. But hitherto studies of profeminine attitudes in that period's culture have tended to concentrate on courtly literature, on female visionary writings, or on attempts to transcend misogyny by major authors such as Christine de Pizan and Chaucer. This book sets out to demonstrate something different: that there existed from early in the Middle Ages a corpus of substantial traditions in defence of women, on which the more familiar authors drew, and that this corpus itself consolidated strands of profeminine thought that had been present as far back as the patristic literature of the 4th century. The book surveys extant writings formally defending women in the Middle Ages; identifies a source for profeminine argument in biblical apocrypha; offers a series of explorations of the background and circulation of central arguments on behalf of women; and seeks to situate relevant texts by Christine de Pizan, Chaucer, Abelard, and Hrotsvitha in relation to these arguments. Topics covered range from the privileges of women, and pro-Eve polemic, to the social and moral strengths attributed to women, and to the powerful models frequently disruptive of patriarchal complacency presented by Old and New Testament women. The contribution made by these emphases (which are not to be confused with feminism in a modern sense) to medieval constructions of gender is throughout critically assessed.
Gary Macy
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195189704
- eISBN:
- 9780199868575
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195189704.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
The concluding chapter speculates on some of the reasons why the definition of ordination changed in the 11th and 12th centuries, and, more importantly, why women were no longer considered either ...
More
The concluding chapter speculates on some of the reasons why the definition of ordination changed in the 11th and 12th centuries, and, more importantly, why women were no longer considered either ordained or able to be ordained. Four factors contributed to the change. The Gregorian Reform Movement with its insistence on celibacy introduced a new and more virulent form of misogyny into Western Christianity. Roman law was read selectively to enforce the idea that women were incapable of leadership roles in the church. The biology and politics of Aristotle, newly introduced in the West, asserted that women were biologically and intellectually inferior to men. Theologians read scripture as supporting the assumptions of Roman law and Aristotle concerning the inferiority women and Eve in particular become the scapegoat for the Fall. No one cause seemed determinative in relegating women to an inferior status, but rather a concatenation of several mutually reinforcing factors.Less
The concluding chapter speculates on some of the reasons why the definition of ordination changed in the 11th and 12th centuries, and, more importantly, why women were no longer considered either ordained or able to be ordained. Four factors contributed to the change. The Gregorian Reform Movement with its insistence on celibacy introduced a new and more virulent form of misogyny into Western Christianity. Roman law was read selectively to enforce the idea that women were incapable of leadership roles in the church. The biology and politics of Aristotle, newly introduced in the West, asserted that women were biologically and intellectually inferior to men. Theologians read scripture as supporting the assumptions of Roman law and Aristotle concerning the inferiority women and Eve in particular become the scapegoat for the Fall. No one cause seemed determinative in relegating women to an inferior status, but rather a concatenation of several mutually reinforcing factors.
Norma Thompson
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300088175
- eISBN:
- 9780300128055
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300088175.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This book provides a new perspective on the development of political thought from Homer to Machiavelli, Tocqueville, and Gertrude Stein (who is introduced here, for the first time, as a writer of ...
More
This book provides a new perspective on the development of political thought from Homer to Machiavelli, Tocqueville, and Gertrude Stein (who is introduced here, for the first time, as a writer of political significance). Providing nuanced readings of key texts by these and other thinkers, it locates a powerful theme: that the political health of organized political communities—from the ancient polis to the modern state to contemporary democracy—requires a balance between masculine and feminine qualities. Although most critics view the Western tradition as a progression away from misogyny and toward rights for women, the book contends that the need for balance in the political community was well understood in earlier eras, and only now has it been almost entirely overlooked in our focus on surface indications of strict gender equality. It argues that political rhetoric must once again promote the reconciliation of masculine and feminine forces in order to achieve effective politics and statecraft.Less
This book provides a new perspective on the development of political thought from Homer to Machiavelli, Tocqueville, and Gertrude Stein (who is introduced here, for the first time, as a writer of political significance). Providing nuanced readings of key texts by these and other thinkers, it locates a powerful theme: that the political health of organized political communities—from the ancient polis to the modern state to contemporary democracy—requires a balance between masculine and feminine qualities. Although most critics view the Western tradition as a progression away from misogyny and toward rights for women, the book contends that the need for balance in the political community was well understood in earlier eras, and only now has it been almost entirely overlooked in our focus on surface indications of strict gender equality. It argues that political rhetoric must once again promote the reconciliation of masculine and feminine forces in order to achieve effective politics and statecraft.
Diego Zancani
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264133
- eISBN:
- 9780191734649
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264133.003.0011
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
This chapter traces the origin of the rejection of Petrarch and misogyny during the Renaissance period. It investigates some aspects of a reaction against the Petrarchan poetic clichés among Italian ...
More
This chapter traces the origin of the rejection of Petrarch and misogyny during the Renaissance period. It investigates some aspects of a reaction against the Petrarchan poetic clichés among Italian writers with some reference to a few English Elizabethan texts. It shows a model which depicts how an idealised view of one woman can be used to create a negative, basically chaotic, and even scurrilous image, in a period in which parody and mocking texts abound.Less
This chapter traces the origin of the rejection of Petrarch and misogyny during the Renaissance period. It investigates some aspects of a reaction against the Petrarchan poetic clichés among Italian writers with some reference to a few English Elizabethan texts. It shows a model which depicts how an idealised view of one woman can be used to create a negative, basically chaotic, and even scurrilous image, in a period in which parody and mocking texts abound.
Louise Barnett
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195188660
- eISBN:
- 9780199851065
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195188660.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
Building upon recent research on the history of women, this book examines Swift, both as man and writer, in terms of women: women as intimates, acquaintances, subjects of satire, and those who wrote ...
More
Building upon recent research on the history of women, this book examines Swift, both as man and writer, in terms of women: women as intimates, acquaintances, subjects of satire, and those who wrote about Swift. The book considers women as mothers and nurses in Swift's personal life and his fictions, and it explores the issue that has persisted from the eighteenth century into our own time: the subject of misogyny in Swift's writings.Less
Building upon recent research on the history of women, this book examines Swift, both as man and writer, in terms of women: women as intimates, acquaintances, subjects of satire, and those who wrote about Swift. The book considers women as mothers and nurses in Swift's personal life and his fictions, and it explores the issue that has persisted from the eighteenth century into our own time: the subject of misogyny in Swift's writings.
Karen C. Lang
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195151138
- eISBN:
- 9780199870448
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195151135.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
Ignorant people do not understand that the human body is neither a source of pleasure nor of pride. The Buddhist monks’ condemnation of sex develops an old misogynist theme of women's bodies as the ...
More
Ignorant people do not understand that the human body is neither a source of pleasure nor of pride. The Buddhist monks’ condemnation of sex develops an old misogynist theme of women's bodies as the bait that traps unwary, foolish men in the cycle of repeated birth and death. Adulterous fools mistakenly believe that women's impure bodies are sources of pleasure. Male bodies are equally impure and Buddhists criticize the Brahmins’ claim to superior purity, based upon their mistaken views of chastity and their claims of descent from the gods.Less
Ignorant people do not understand that the human body is neither a source of pleasure nor of pride. The Buddhist monks’ condemnation of sex develops an old misogynist theme of women's bodies as the bait that traps unwary, foolish men in the cycle of repeated birth and death. Adulterous fools mistakenly believe that women's impure bodies are sources of pleasure. Male bodies are equally impure and Buddhists criticize the Brahmins’ claim to superior purity, based upon their mistaken views of chastity and their claims of descent from the gods.
Lesel Dawson
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199266128
- eISBN:
- 9780191708688
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199266128.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature, Women's Literature
This chapter analyses the menstrual cure for lovesickness in early modern medical and literary texts, suggesting how it throws important light on concepts of women, masculinity, and menstruation. In ...
More
This chapter analyses the menstrual cure for lovesickness in early modern medical and literary texts, suggesting how it throws important light on concepts of women, masculinity, and menstruation. In this remedy, the lovesick man is shown the bloody cloths of his mistress, so that rather than inciting desire, her body provokes revulsion. Such a strategy mitigates the contradictions of male emotion and renders them justifiable: the lover's conflicting responses are represented as not the product of internal inconsistencies but rather as the inevitable result of being confronted by two seemingly different bodies. Male sexual insecurity is thus projected onto the female body, so that the lover's misogyny functions as a means of compensating for his sense of vulnerability and powerlessness. The menstrual cure also throuws new light on a key scene in Flectcher's The Mad Lover, which depicts how sexual disgust can cure the male lover.Less
This chapter analyses the menstrual cure for lovesickness in early modern medical and literary texts, suggesting how it throws important light on concepts of women, masculinity, and menstruation. In this remedy, the lovesick man is shown the bloody cloths of his mistress, so that rather than inciting desire, her body provokes revulsion. Such a strategy mitigates the contradictions of male emotion and renders them justifiable: the lover's conflicting responses are represented as not the product of internal inconsistencies but rather as the inevitable result of being confronted by two seemingly different bodies. Male sexual insecurity is thus projected onto the female body, so that the lover's misogyny functions as a means of compensating for his sense of vulnerability and powerlessness. The menstrual cure also throuws new light on a key scene in Flectcher's The Mad Lover, which depicts how sexual disgust can cure the male lover.
Geoffrey Campbell Cocks
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199695676
- eISBN:
- 9780191738616
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199695676.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
Adolf Hitler was traumatized by Germany's defeat in 1918. But his reaction was rooted in a psychopathology in turn grounded in modern male anxieties about self, body, and identity. Hitler and his ...
More
Adolf Hitler was traumatized by Germany's defeat in 1918. But his reaction was rooted in a psychopathology in turn grounded in modern male anxieties about self, body, and identity. Hitler and his many followers blamed their discontents on traditionally vilified Jews. ‘The Jew’ also embodied deep ‘masculine’ rejection of early dependence on the mother, the challenge of adult women to a ‘hypermasculine’ and patriarchal German society, and the war's destruction of illusions of masculine control and power. The medical discourse and policy of the Third Reich mobilized aspects of modern society to pursue anxious aims of racial health, racial conquest, and racial extermination.Less
Adolf Hitler was traumatized by Germany's defeat in 1918. But his reaction was rooted in a psychopathology in turn grounded in modern male anxieties about self, body, and identity. Hitler and his many followers blamed their discontents on traditionally vilified Jews. ‘The Jew’ also embodied deep ‘masculine’ rejection of early dependence on the mother, the challenge of adult women to a ‘hypermasculine’ and patriarchal German society, and the war's destruction of illusions of masculine control and power. The medical discourse and policy of the Third Reich mobilized aspects of modern society to pursue anxious aims of racial health, racial conquest, and racial extermination.
Stephanie W. Jamison
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195305326
- eISBN:
- 9780199850884
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195305326.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
In defining the territory “between the empires” and its relations with women's history, this chapter concentrates on dharma texts and texts that reflect and complement them, namely, the Arthaśāstra ...
More
In defining the territory “between the empires” and its relations with women's history, this chapter concentrates on dharma texts and texts that reflect and complement them, namely, the Arthaśāstra and even the Kāma Sūtra, and it aims to explore what is different (and/or new) about the portrayal of women in the Dharmaśāstra, as represented by Manu, in contrast to the earlier Dharmasūstras. By most estimates Manu belongs “between the empires,” whereas the sūtras, growing out of the Vedic schools, have their feet at least conceptually in an earlier period. In examining this question this chapter follows Patrick Olivelle's (new) relative dating of the Dharmasutras, and indeed arguing for its correctness on the basis of its own data. The chapter adds claims that the rise of overt misogyny is closely tied to the first tendency, the recognition of women as potential agents.Less
In defining the territory “between the empires” and its relations with women's history, this chapter concentrates on dharma texts and texts that reflect and complement them, namely, the Arthaśāstra and even the Kāma Sūtra, and it aims to explore what is different (and/or new) about the portrayal of women in the Dharmaśāstra, as represented by Manu, in contrast to the earlier Dharmasūstras. By most estimates Manu belongs “between the empires,” whereas the sūtras, growing out of the Vedic schools, have their feet at least conceptually in an earlier period. In examining this question this chapter follows Patrick Olivelle's (new) relative dating of the Dharmasutras, and indeed arguing for its correctness on the basis of its own data. The chapter adds claims that the rise of overt misogyny is closely tied to the first tendency, the recognition of women as potential agents.
Michelle Madden Dempsey
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199562169
- eISBN:
- 9780191705298
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199562169.003.0007
- Subject:
- Law, Philosophy of Law, Criminal Law and Criminology
This chapter offers an account of patriarchy, understood here as a wrongful structural inequality against which feminism is concerned to act. By providing an account of what being patriarchal means, ...
More
This chapter offers an account of patriarchy, understood here as a wrongful structural inequality against which feminism is concerned to act. By providing an account of what being patriarchal means, it seeks to illuminate by contrast what it means to be feminist, and thus to clarify the book's overarching thesis that ceteris paribus domestic-violence prosecutors should be feminists. After setting its discussion within the context of intersectionality discourse, the chapter proceeds to unpack the wrongness of patriarchy in terms of its tendency to limit systematically women's access to options that are critical to the success of their lives. This tendency is elaborated by way of a tripartite analysis in which it is claimed that patriarchy may consist in sex discrimination (denying valuable options to women based on misconceptions), sexism (denying valuable options based on a failure to value women), and/or misogyny (malicious securing disvalue for women).Less
This chapter offers an account of patriarchy, understood here as a wrongful structural inequality against which feminism is concerned to act. By providing an account of what being patriarchal means, it seeks to illuminate by contrast what it means to be feminist, and thus to clarify the book's overarching thesis that ceteris paribus domestic-violence prosecutors should be feminists. After setting its discussion within the context of intersectionality discourse, the chapter proceeds to unpack the wrongness of patriarchy in terms of its tendency to limit systematically women's access to options that are critical to the success of their lives. This tendency is elaborated by way of a tripartite analysis in which it is claimed that patriarchy may consist in sex discrimination (denying valuable options to women based on misconceptions), sexism (denying valuable options based on a failure to value women), and/or misogyny (malicious securing disvalue for women).
David Clark
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199654307
- eISBN:
- 9780191742071
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199654307.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
The final chapter returns to the issues of revenge and its relation to femininity with which we started in Chapter 1, but now in relation to the women of the contemporary sagas. It evaluates the ...
More
The final chapter returns to the issues of revenge and its relation to femininity with which we started in Chapter 1, but now in relation to the women of the contemporary sagas. It evaluates the contemporary saga writers’ attitudes to women and their perception of the role of women in the conflicts of the Sturlung Age. It shows that misogynistic tropes such as the scapegoating of women for the results of men's violent actions, and negative images possibly resting on religious constructions of women as irrational and corporeal, or even abject, are employed in Sturlunga saga. However, the picture is not a uniform one, and in several texts in the compilation one finds women acting as mediators or ‘anti-inciters’ who attempt to dissuade men from revenge and destructive acts.Less
The final chapter returns to the issues of revenge and its relation to femininity with which we started in Chapter 1, but now in relation to the women of the contemporary sagas. It evaluates the contemporary saga writers’ attitudes to women and their perception of the role of women in the conflicts of the Sturlung Age. It shows that misogynistic tropes such as the scapegoating of women for the results of men's violent actions, and negative images possibly resting on religious constructions of women as irrational and corporeal, or even abject, are employed in Sturlunga saga. However, the picture is not a uniform one, and in several texts in the compilation one finds women acting as mediators or ‘anti-inciters’ who attempt to dissuade men from revenge and destructive acts.
Derek Hirst and Steven N. Zwicker
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199655373
- eISBN:
- 9780191742118
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199655373.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 17th-century and Restoration Literature, Poetry
This chapter uses the early modern construct of patriarchy as a way to understand Marvell's idealizing but often troubled address to the dominant male figures of his life: Thomas Lord Fairfax, Oliver ...
More
This chapter uses the early modern construct of patriarchy as a way to understand Marvell's idealizing but often troubled address to the dominant male figures of his life: Thomas Lord Fairfax, Oliver Cromwell, the Duke of Buckingham; and it speculates about his yearnings for shelter and attachment.Less
This chapter uses the early modern construct of patriarchy as a way to understand Marvell's idealizing but often troubled address to the dominant male figures of his life: Thomas Lord Fairfax, Oliver Cromwell, the Duke of Buckingham; and it speculates about his yearnings for shelter and attachment.
Alcuin Blamires
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198186304
- eISBN:
- 9780191674501
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198186304.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
This introductory chapter sets out the purpose of the book, which is to make a mild ‘case’ for women in medieval culture. It argues that the case for women has been slow to achieve recognition ...
More
This introductory chapter sets out the purpose of the book, which is to make a mild ‘case’ for women in medieval culture. It argues that the case for women has been slow to achieve recognition because texts which incorporate it have remained fairly inaccessible, and have not been studied extensively as a group. The case for women is described as a mode of discourse which aims to build a positive representation of women in response to either specified or implicit accusations. It can be thought of as a character reference, the obverse of a character assassination. It will characteristically take the form of direct oration, but forms such as debate, narrative, and even lyric can also accommodate it.Less
This introductory chapter sets out the purpose of the book, which is to make a mild ‘case’ for women in medieval culture. It argues that the case for women has been slow to achieve recognition because texts which incorporate it have remained fairly inaccessible, and have not been studied extensively as a group. The case for women is described as a mode of discourse which aims to build a positive representation of women in response to either specified or implicit accusations. It can be thought of as a character reference, the obverse of a character assassination. It will characteristically take the form of direct oration, but forms such as debate, narrative, and even lyric can also accommodate it.
Helen Cooper
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199248865
- eISBN:
- 9780191719394
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199248865.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
The romance of the falsely accused woman led a particularly vibrant life in England, where it may have originated; Shakespeare uses such a plot in six of his plays. That the accusation is false ...
More
The romance of the falsely accused woman led a particularly vibrant life in England, where it may have originated; Shakespeare uses such a plot in six of his plays. That the accusation is false places it at odds with the French romance readiness to accommodate adultery, often mistermed ‘courtly love’. The political relevance of the motif was sharply boosted by Henry VIII’s prosecution of three of his wives and the consequences of those charges for the succession to the throne. The trial of the accused woman also focuses an issue found much more widely in romance, the debate as to whether women are good or wicked, and therefore as to the justifiability of misogyny: a debate that connects with the ardent sexuality of the heroines discussed in the previous chapter.Less
The romance of the falsely accused woman led a particularly vibrant life in England, where it may have originated; Shakespeare uses such a plot in six of his plays. That the accusation is false places it at odds with the French romance readiness to accommodate adultery, often mistermed ‘courtly love’. The political relevance of the motif was sharply boosted by Henry VIII’s prosecution of three of his wives and the consequences of those charges for the succession to the throne. The trial of the accused woman also focuses an issue found much more widely in romance, the debate as to whether women are good or wicked, and therefore as to the justifiability of misogyny: a debate that connects with the ardent sexuality of the heroines discussed in the previous chapter.
Louise Barnett
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195188660
- eISBN:
- 9780199851065
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195188660.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
The first case of misogyny given in the OED is from a dictionary called Glossographia, published in 1656. Here, it is defined as “the hatred or contempt of women,” a concise and reasonable ...
More
The first case of misogyny given in the OED is from a dictionary called Glossographia, published in 1656. Here, it is defined as “the hatred or contempt of women,” a concise and reasonable definition, only it is necessary to ask what comprises hatred or contempt of women. The issue of misogyny can be more productively framed in terms of Swift's cultural and personal heritage to determine where we can accurately draw the line between the principle of female inferiority that almost everyone of his generation permitted and the hatred of women that values the misogyny label. If we were to create our own conventions retroactively, everything believed about women in Swift's time was misogynistic, starting with what John Essex characterizes as “a Fundamental Law between Man and Wife, that is very near as ancient as the World itself.”Less
The first case of misogyny given in the OED is from a dictionary called Glossographia, published in 1656. Here, it is defined as “the hatred or contempt of women,” a concise and reasonable definition, only it is necessary to ask what comprises hatred or contempt of women. The issue of misogyny can be more productively framed in terms of Swift's cultural and personal heritage to determine where we can accurately draw the line between the principle of female inferiority that almost everyone of his generation permitted and the hatred of women that values the misogyny label. If we were to create our own conventions retroactively, everything believed about women in Swift's time was misogynistic, starting with what John Essex characterizes as “a Fundamental Law between Man and Wife, that is very near as ancient as the World itself.”
Elizabeth Boa
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198158196
- eISBN:
- 9780191673283
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198158196.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This chapter provides an in-depth background to the style of Kafka's writing, stating that the turmoil-filled state of society in which he lived gave rise to many of the surreal social and cultural ...
More
This chapter provides an in-depth background to the style of Kafka's writing, stating that the turmoil-filled state of society in which he lived gave rise to many of the surreal social and cultural portrayals present in his work. The main catalyst for Kafka's work is his identity, or rather, the identity of his kind as a minority in a society which places too much importance on race, gender, and sexuality. In a society where much praise goes the quality of bloodline, Kafka found himself estranged from himself, his family, and the world around him. As a German-speaking person born to a well-off Jewish family, he was seen as not on a par with his pureblooded contemporaries, a crisis he shared with most of his kind during those days. He was, in essence, the basis of the reoccurring bachelor archetype present in many of his famous works; an entity in a world where to be emancipated is to be feral and inhuman, and in which social isolation only breeds a struggled attempt to placate an erotic longing, with writing the only medium for escape.Less
This chapter provides an in-depth background to the style of Kafka's writing, stating that the turmoil-filled state of society in which he lived gave rise to many of the surreal social and cultural portrayals present in his work. The main catalyst for Kafka's work is his identity, or rather, the identity of his kind as a minority in a society which places too much importance on race, gender, and sexuality. In a society where much praise goes the quality of bloodline, Kafka found himself estranged from himself, his family, and the world around him. As a German-speaking person born to a well-off Jewish family, he was seen as not on a par with his pureblooded contemporaries, a crisis he shared with most of his kind during those days. He was, in essence, the basis of the reoccurring bachelor archetype present in many of his famous works; an entity in a world where to be emancipated is to be feral and inhuman, and in which social isolation only breeds a struggled attempt to placate an erotic longing, with writing the only medium for escape.
Ruth Cruickshank
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199571758
- eISBN:
- 9780191721793
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199571758.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism, European Literature
This chapter examines patterns of crisis in the 1990s prose fictions of Goncourt prize winner Echenoz. Countering contradictory critiques of Echenoz as epitome or observer of postmodernity, it ...
More
This chapter examines patterns of crisis in the 1990s prose fictions of Goncourt prize winner Echenoz. Countering contradictory critiques of Echenoz as epitome or observer of postmodernity, it identifies in representations of cultural production (including novels, cinema, the art market, and reality television) implicit critical challenges to the symbolic violence of the mass media. Foregrounding the patterns of a parallel crisis‐generating postcolonial economy underlying the global market, it also identifies how Echenoz's avoidance of overt criticism risks perpetuating market‐driven stereotypes and misogyny. Analysis of language games and intertexts (including, via Žižek, Hitchcock's Vertigo) identifies how both deliberately and unintentionally Echenoz draws on and draws attention to the agency—critical and oppressive—of different fictional constructions, bringing into the tropes of his novels, the media, and the market alike, and thus leadng readers to consider their own responsibility in challenging or perpetuating symbolic violence.Less
This chapter examines patterns of crisis in the 1990s prose fictions of Goncourt prize winner Echenoz. Countering contradictory critiques of Echenoz as epitome or observer of postmodernity, it identifies in representations of cultural production (including novels, cinema, the art market, and reality television) implicit critical challenges to the symbolic violence of the mass media. Foregrounding the patterns of a parallel crisis‐generating postcolonial economy underlying the global market, it also identifies how Echenoz's avoidance of overt criticism risks perpetuating market‐driven stereotypes and misogyny. Analysis of language games and intertexts (including, via Žižek, Hitchcock's Vertigo) identifies how both deliberately and unintentionally Echenoz draws on and draws attention to the agency—critical and oppressive—of different fictional constructions, bringing into the tropes of his novels, the media, and the market alike, and thus leadng readers to consider their own responsibility in challenging or perpetuating symbolic violence.
Ruth Cruickshank
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199571758
- eISBN:
- 9780191721793
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199571758.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism, European Literature
Noting their prescience regarding 9/11 and the 21st‐century crisis of global capitalism, the Conclusion shows how the texts analysed afford critical purchase on the global market, and on French ...
More
Noting their prescience regarding 9/11 and the 21st‐century crisis of global capitalism, the Conclusion shows how the texts analysed afford critical purchase on the global market, and on French co‐implication in it. It argues that by exploring the enduring potential of the turning point, Angot, Echenoz, Houellebecq, and Redonnet evidence an implicit commitment to literary agency. The conclusion then identifies how these writers intersect and diverge in reflecting, perpetuating, and challenging the misogyny and symbolic violence of the mass media and global market. Fin de millénaire prose fiction is established as both problematic and problematizing, inviting and begging the question of how literature may challenge dominant discourses and represent or shape the future. The aesthetics of crisis of fin de millénaire prose fictions, then, demonstrate both the need to intervene in political and ethical questions and the enduring agency — critical and creative—of literature.Less
Noting their prescience regarding 9/11 and the 21st‐century crisis of global capitalism, the Conclusion shows how the texts analysed afford critical purchase on the global market, and on French co‐implication in it. It argues that by exploring the enduring potential of the turning point, Angot, Echenoz, Houellebecq, and Redonnet evidence an implicit commitment to literary agency. The conclusion then identifies how these writers intersect and diverge in reflecting, perpetuating, and challenging the misogyny and symbolic violence of the mass media and global market. Fin de millénaire prose fiction is established as both problematic and problematizing, inviting and begging the question of how literature may challenge dominant discourses and represent or shape the future. The aesthetics of crisis of fin de millénaire prose fictions, then, demonstrate both the need to intervene in political and ethical questions and the enduring agency — critical and creative—of literature.
ALDA BLANCO
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198158868
- eISBN:
- 9780191673399
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198158868.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This chapter charts the critical tradition's transformation of women as subjects of writing and reading into objects of blame and their subsequent exclusion from the text of literary history. That ...
More
This chapter charts the critical tradition's transformation of women as subjects of writing and reading into objects of blame and their subsequent exclusion from the text of literary history. That women should be the ones to bear the burden of blame should come as no surprise. However, to invoke misogyny alone as an explanation of José Montesinos's indictment of the woman reader is not enough. Misogyny cannot explain a critical tradition which, from the outset, relentlessly, and maybe even obsessively, inscribed the figure of woman into its discourse as its object of blame. Rather, the chapter suggests that by mapping out the discursive underpinnings of the ideological project of Spanish literary scholarship with relation to gender, one can begin to elucidate the original nexus that forged its construction.Less
This chapter charts the critical tradition's transformation of women as subjects of writing and reading into objects of blame and their subsequent exclusion from the text of literary history. That women should be the ones to bear the burden of blame should come as no surprise. However, to invoke misogyny alone as an explanation of José Montesinos's indictment of the woman reader is not enough. Misogyny cannot explain a critical tradition which, from the outset, relentlessly, and maybe even obsessively, inscribed the figure of woman into its discourse as its object of blame. Rather, the chapter suggests that by mapping out the discursive underpinnings of the ideological project of Spanish literary scholarship with relation to gender, one can begin to elucidate the original nexus that forged its construction.
Helen Kraus
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199600786
- eISBN:
- 9780191731563
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199600786.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies, Church History
This final chapter reviews the study's findings. The translations, particularly the Septuagint, reveal clear allusions to contemporary culture. That said, highly conscientious translators, such as ...
More
This final chapter reviews the study's findings. The translations, particularly the Septuagint, reveal clear allusions to contemporary culture. That said, highly conscientious translators, such as the Authorized Version scholars, to some degree redress the balance. However, there remains the question of androcentricity and its corollary, misogyny, that reached its nadir in the witch hunts of the late Middle Ages and beyond. In the Hebrew Bible, androcentricity may point to a pre‐occupation with genetic continuity, but when Semitic masculine tradition meets Hellenistic culture, womanhood undeniably suffers. Reformation and Early Modernity to some extent restore the balance, coinciding with a growing tradition of more precise Bible translation. Nevertheless, Luther's cosmology, where the husband is lord, has only been challenged in recent years.Less
This final chapter reviews the study's findings. The translations, particularly the Septuagint, reveal clear allusions to contemporary culture. That said, highly conscientious translators, such as the Authorized Version scholars, to some degree redress the balance. However, there remains the question of androcentricity and its corollary, misogyny, that reached its nadir in the witch hunts of the late Middle Ages and beyond. In the Hebrew Bible, androcentricity may point to a pre‐occupation with genetic continuity, but when Semitic masculine tradition meets Hellenistic culture, womanhood undeniably suffers. Reformation and Early Modernity to some extent restore the balance, coinciding with a growing tradition of more precise Bible translation. Nevertheless, Luther's cosmology, where the husband is lord, has only been challenged in recent years.
