Defining Feminism
December 11, 2012
Jonathan Deane
Introduction to Research
Defining Feminism
Feminism in writing has a very broad definition and varies by source and historical perspective. Generally, a feminist author will write about the women playing a role more important than society would permit. Their work is usually critical of social limits placed on women. It is very difficult to pinpoint what aspects of a book make the author a feminist whether you are a leisure reader or an analyst. Different people have different writing styles, so it is hard to say that one feminist writing a certain way makes that author a feminist, and another feminist writing a different way makes them not a feminist because they are different. Margaret Atwood is a well-known author who is very involved in the feminist movement in literature. She believes that only authors who consciously work inside the framework of the feminist movement can be given the label as a feminist. Tanith Lee would be able to argue against this statement. Lee is a science fiction, feminist author and she stated in an interview that she did not even consider herself a feminist writer until she was put on the a list in The Woman’s Press. Tanith Lee and Margaret Atwood have comparable writing styles.
Tanith Lee and Margaret Atwood wrote books that were are similar in content and style in the late 20th century. Feminist writers have styles of writing that they share with each other that classifies them as feminists. Elizabeth Lee ’97 of Browns University quotes Virginia Woolf, a well-known author that speaks about women’s writing and its historical and economical underpinnings, and states, “a women writer seeks within herself “the pools, the depths, the dark places where the largest fish slumber,” inevitably colliding against her own sexuality to confront “something about the body, about the passions.”” (E. Lee, “The Victorian Web”). In other words, Woolf is stating that a feminist writer typically
Jonathan Deane
Introduction to Research
Defining Feminism
Feminism in writing has a very broad definition and varies by source and historical perspective. Generally, a feminist author will write about the women playing a role more important than society would permit. Their work is usually critical of social limits placed on women. It is very difficult to pinpoint what aspects of a book make the author a feminist whether you are a leisure reader or an analyst. Different people have different writing styles, so it is hard to say that one feminist writing a certain way makes that author a feminist, and another feminist writing a different way makes them not a feminist because they are different. Margaret Atwood is a well-known author who is very involved in the feminist movement in literature. She believes that only authors who consciously work inside the framework of the feminist movement can be given the label as a feminist. Tanith Lee would be able to argue against this statement. Lee is a science fiction, feminist author and she stated in an interview that she did not even consider herself a feminist writer until she was put on the a list in The Woman’s Press. Tanith Lee and Margaret Atwood have comparable writing styles.
Tanith Lee and Margaret Atwood wrote books that were are similar in content and style in the late 20th century. Feminist writers have styles of writing that they share with each other that classifies them as feminists. Elizabeth Lee ’97 of Browns University quotes Virginia Woolf, a well-known author that speaks about women’s writing and its historical and economical underpinnings, and states, “a women writer seeks within herself “the pools, the depths, the dark places where the largest fish slumber,” inevitably colliding against her own sexuality to confront “something about the body, about the passions.”” (E. Lee, “The Victorian Web”). In other words, Woolf is stating that a feminist writer typically