Tradition and the Talents of Women

8/16/2019 Tradition and the Talents of Women

1/5

University of Tulsa

Review: [untitled]Author(s): Sandra M. GilbertSource: Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Autumn, 1992), pp. 363-366Published by: University of TulsaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/464308 .

Accessed: 18/04/2011 02:36

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2/5

REVIEWS

TRADITION

AND THE TALENTS

OF

WOMEN,

edited

by

Florence

Howe. Urbana:

University

of

Illinois

Press,

1991.

379

pp.

$44.95

cloth;

$17.50

paper.

As feminist

teacher,

women's tudies

scholar,

groundbreaking

nthologist,

Englishdepartmentadministrator,mentor,friend, and role model, Mary

Anne

Ferguson,

now ProfessorEmeritus

at the

University

of

Massachusetts,

Boston,

hasfor

many years

been

a

major

mother

of

us

all.

I

can

remember

how

excited and

impressed

was

in

the

mid-seventies

by

the

cogency

of

her

important

collection

Imagesof

Women

n

Literature,

irst

published

n

1973

and

now in

its fifth

edition

(1991).

But

I

was

equally

moved,

when I learned

more about

her

life,

by

the

story

of

her

long

struggle

or

professional quality,

a tale-as

FlorenceHowe

puts

it-of

literaland

metaphysical

ourneys

hat

she tells in an

essay ironically

called'A Success

Story

[?] '

(p.

xv,

n.

2).

A

faculty

wife

assome

of

us

havebeen

deprecatingly

alled)

and mother

of

three,

Ferguson

embarkedon

her

academic

career

relatively

late,

then

found herself

up

against

the

tangle

of

nepotism

rules

and

commuter

schedulesthat

have

increasingly

afflicted

professional

couples

over

the last

few decades.

Her

triumph

over

bureaucratic

bstacles,

I

must

confess,

meant

as

much to

me

personally

as did

her

powerful

and incisive

expose

of

the

ways

in which

images

f

women

over

the centurieshave

been

on the

whole more

hurtful than

helpful,

more

debilitating

than

exhilarating.

Now, in honor of this nurturing igure-whose own image s in fact an

inspiring

one-Florence Howe

has

gathered

a

wide-ranginggroup

of

essays

on

the talents

and

tradition(s)

of

women

from the Renaissance

to the

present.

Sensibly

organized

nto

five coherent

sections

( The

Cypher':

A

Trope

for Women

Writers and

Characters ; Autobiography:

The

Self as

Strategy

for

Survival ;

The

Centrality

of

Marginality ;

The

Tradition

of

Socially Engaged

Literature ;

Reprise:

The

Tradition

Re-Visioned ),

he

book

covers authors

and

topics

as various

as

Elizabeth

Cary

and MeridelLe

Sueur,JaneAusten andMargaretWalker, ender politics/ geopolitics, nd

women's

extile

work.

In

doing

so,

while

paying

tribute to a

founding

mother of

feminist

criticismand

women's

tudies,

this work

gives

us

a

pretty

accurate

sense of

where

we have

been,

where we still

(productively)

re,

and

where

we

may

be

going.

363


3/5

My

allusionto

Joyce

Carol Oates'samous

tory

s,

of

course,

ronic:where

we

have

been and

where

we are

going

is

(or

so

I

trust)

quite definitively

out of

the suicidal

trap

into

which Oates'sadolescent heroine is so

bitterly

driven

in WhereAre YouGoing, Where Have YouBeen? 1But it has certainly

taken decadesof

keen

analysis

not

just

of

women'sworks

but

of

the

represen-

tations

of

women and women's

work for us to

begin

to extricate ourselves

from

the maze

of

conflicting messages

hat leads

into

that

trap.

What

I

like best

about

Tradition nd the Talents

f

Women s

precisely

he

keenness

of the

analysis

that those who are

Ferguson's

iteral

or

figurative

daughters

ontinue to

undertake.

n

this

respect,

the first

hree

essays

n

the

collection are

exemplary

even while

they

seem

to be

the most conven-

tionally

canonical.

The

first,

by MargaretFerguson, crupulously

nvesti-

gates the problematicpsychologicalpressures nd materialconditions sur-

rounding

The

Case

of'E.

C. '-Elizabeth

Cary,

he Elizabethanauthor

of

The

Tragedie f

Miriam,

FaireQueene

of

Jewry,

almost

certainly

the first

substantial

riginal

work n

a

genre socially

coded

as off-bounds

o

women,

authors and actressesalike

(p.

37).

The

second,

by

jean

Ferguson

Carr,

brilliantly explores

the Polemicsof

Incomprehension

ssociatedwith the

vexed and often

vexing figure

of

Mrs. Bennet

in

Pride ndPrejudice. nd the

third,

by

Karen

Lawrence,

meticulously

uncovers

the

ambiguities

of

Lucy

Snowe'sself-definition n Villetteas a cypher -a symbol hat can suggest

she is less

significant

han others

(a

nonentity), secretly

ignificant

a code),

more

significant

(a

key),

or

significantdepending pon

herrelation o

others,

and

possessing

the

power

to make others

variously

significant

as well

(pp.

87-88).

Equally perceptive

discussions

of women's

achievements

in a

range

of

genres

(including autobiography,

ral/collaborative

narrative,

eminist

po-

lemic)

are offered

hroughout

he

rest

of

the collection.

Especially

notable

are

Jean

M.

Humez's

lluminatingstudy

of the

strategies

of oral-historical

autobiography eployed in LemonSwampand OtherPlaces: A Carolina

Memoir,

the ife

story

of

MamieGarvin

Fields,

constructed

out of conversa-

tions with her

granddaughter,

KarenFields

p.

131);

Blanche

H.

Gelfant's

lively

comment

on

Language

s

Theft

in

MeridelLe Sueur's

The

Girl ;

onia

Saldivar-Hull's

meditation on the

brutality

of Gender

Politics and Geo-

politics

as

represented

by

Gloria

Azalduia

nd Helena

Maria

Viramontes;

and Elaine Showalter's

examination

of

The

Discourse

of

the

Feminist

Intellectual

n the

writings

of

Margaret

Fullerand Florence

Nightingale.

Althoughall the otheressays n this collection dealwithsimilarlycrucial

subjects,

I found

myself

n some cases

wanting

more and keener

analysis.

For

instance,

I

am

in

many

waysdelightedby

Charlotte

Goodman's elebration

of

Margaret

Walker's

ubilee-

a book that I

agree

s too little studied-but

at

times I find

myself

wishing

her discussion

of

this novel were

more

subtly

364


4/5

probing

and less

simplisticallypraising

about the

cultural

dynamics

that

enabled

Walker's

Vyry

to

gain strength.

Similarly,

Lois Rudnick's

A Femi-

nist

American Success

Myth: Jane

Addams's

Twenty

Years t Hull-House s

useful and informativebut might have profitedfrom a largertheoretical

framework,

while Nellie

Y.

McKay's

urvey

of the

autobiographies

f Harriet

Jacobs,

Mary

Church

Terrell,

and

Anne

Moody-for

the most

part

a fine

discussion

of the memoirs

of African-American

women whose lives

and

works are

of central

importance

to

any

reconstruction

of American

his-

tory-also lapses

at times into

a

purely

celebratory

(rather

than

deeply

analytic)

mode.

But

perhaps

the

difficulties

I

encounter

in

a few of these

essays

are

best

summarized

y my

mixed

feelings

about the

contributions

of

Jane

Marcus

(on

Djuna

Barnes)and Elaine Hedges (on literarywomen'schanging at-

titudes

toward

extsand textiles

in the nineteenth

and twentieth

centuries).

Focusing

on the

complexities

of

Nightwood,

Marcusmakes

a number

of

important

points

about Barnes

as

a female

Rabelais,

nfluenced

by

Hugo

and

in tension

with Freud

p.

216).

Yet

her

piece

tends to

be

rambling,

elf-

indulgent

in its

digressions,

and hectic

in

its

politically

correct (as

we

would

say

now)

insistence on

the

often anti-Semitic

Nightwood

as

a

proph-

ecy

of the

Holocaust

(p.

241). Similarly,

Elaine

Hedges's

beautifully

re-

searchedsurveyof the ambiguitiesgeneratedby TheNeedle or the Pen n

women's

sewing

(and

anti-sewing)

circles flirts

with

what here and there

seems to be

a naive

reclamation

f an

earlier emale

worldof domestic

work

and culture

p.

358).

To

be

sure,

Hedges

rightly

concludes that

we

must

keep

he

continued

oppressive

reality

of

[women's

domestic

work around

the

world]

steadily

in

mind

p.

359).

But

her

point

here

is

one that I want

her and others

to make

evenmore

forcefully.

As we

look back

at where

we have

been,

in

our

ongoing

effort to understand

where

we are

going,

I

think that-without

necessarily

indulging

in the

rigors

of what Showalter

wittily

calls Harold Blooms

aerobic

eading p.

322)-we

have

to continue

the

struggle

first

begun

in

such

a

work as

Mary

Anne

Ferguson's

magesof

Women

n

Literature)

o

analyze

the

ambiguities

of the

pain

our

history

teaches

us

along

with

the

possibilities

t

proposes

o us.

That

we do

have a

history

of

extraordinary

diversity

and

complexity,

however,

is

ultimately

a matter

for us-as

Margaret

Walker

puts

it-of

Jubilee.

And

as Florence

Howe

notes in

her

fine

introduction

to

this

volume,we mustcertainlyhonorit in all itsvariety.One keywaywe do that,

obviously,

s

by paying

ribute

o the mothers

who

bore

and nurtured

us-and

therefore

one

of the

most

movingaspects

of

Tradition

nd he

Talents

f

Women

is

its

inclusion

of

essaysby

Mary

Anne

Ferguson's

literal)daughters,

Mar-

garet Ferguson

and

Jean

Ferguson

Carr,

along

with an

essay

on the

collab-

365


5/5

orative

work

of Mamie Garvin Fields and Fields's

literal)

granddaughter

Karen Fields. We can now have not

only

a

public

but a

personalliterary

lineage,

these works

demonstrate,

and one that

may

well

be

historically

unprecedented.After all, how manyprofessionalwomen of letters in the

past

have

actually

been

parented

or

grandparented

by

women

of

letters

(Could

Emily

Dickinson contribute to a

festschrift

or

her mother?Could

ZoraNeale

Hurston?).

At the same

time,

there is one omission from this collection that

I

seriously

deplore:

its

major

lacuna

s

the

absence

of a work

by

Mary

Anne

Ferguson

herself.

I

wish

Howe

and

her

colleagues

had

included

A

Success

Story[?]

r

another one

of

Ferguson's ssays.

The

daughters

hould

speak

to

the

mother,

yes,

but

the

mother should

speak

too-should

speak

as

our

historyhas so eloquentlyspokento us.

SandraM. Gilbert

University of California,

Davis

NOTES

1

JoyceCarolOates, Where reYouGoing,WhereHaveYouBeen? poch,6,

(Fall

1966), 59-76;

rpt.

in TheNorton

Anthology

f literature

by

Women:TheTradition

in

English,

d. SandraM. Gilbert ndSusanGubar New

York

ndLondon:

Norton,

1985),

pp.

2276-91.

THE CONTOURS OF MASCULINE DESIRE: ROMANTICISM

AND

THE RISE OF WOMEN'S

POETRY,

by

Marlon B. Ross. New York:

Oxford

University

Press, 1989. 344

pp.

$39.95.

Marlon

B.

Ross's

ignal

achievement

n The Contours

f

MasculineDesire s

to alterthe terms of discussionnot

only

for Romanticists

but

also for those

concerned

about the contours

of

the

literary

canon.

Ross's

argument

has

three basic

premises:

hat we inherit ournarrativesof

literary

history,

as well

as our critical

vocabulary

and

assumptions,

rom the

poetry

and criticismof

the

major

male romantic

poets;

that these romantic

narratives, erms,

and

assumptionsweredeveloped n response o, and often in defenseagainst,the

powerfulpresence

of women

poets

who

produced popular

and

acclaimed

work in the

years

between

1790

and

1830;

and

that the

romantic

ideology,

an

ideology scripted through

the forms of masculine

desire,

both

enabled

and

eventually

erased this rich tradition

of British

women's

poetry.

Ross's

orative

work

of Mamie Garvin Fields and Fields's

literal)

granddaughter

Karen Fields. We can now have not

only

a

public

but a

personalliterary

lineage,

these works

demonstrate,

and one that

may

well

be

historically

unprecedented.After all, how manyprofessionalwomen of letters in the

past

have

actually

been

parented

or

grandparented

by

women

of

letters

(Could

Emily

Dickinson contribute to a

festschrift

or

her mother?Could

ZoraNeale

Hurston?).

At the same

time,

there is one omission from this collection that

I

seriously

deplore:

its

major

lacuna

s

the

absence

of a work

by

Mary

Anne

Ferguson

herself.

I

wish

Howe

and

her

colleagues

had

included

A

Success

Story[?]

r

another one

of

Ferguson's ssays.

The

daughters

hould

speak

to

the

mother,

yes,

but

the

mother should

speak

too-should

speak

as

our

historyhas so eloquentlyspokento us.

SandraM. Gilbert

University of California,

Davis

NOTES

1

JoyceCarolOates, Where reYouGoing,WhereHaveYouBeen? poch,6,

(Fall

1966), 59-76;

rpt.

in TheNorton

Anthology

f literature

by

Women:TheTradition

in

English,

d. SandraM. Gilbert ndSusanGubar New

York

ndLondon:

Norton,

1985),

pp.

2276-91.

THE CONTOURS OF MASCULINE DESIRE: ROMANTICISM

AND

THE RISE OF WOMEN'S

POETRY,

by

Marlon B. Ross. New York:

Oxford

University

Press, 1989. 344

pp.

$39.95.

Marlon

B.

Ross's

ignal

achievement

n The Contours

f

MasculineDesire s

to alterthe terms of discussionnot

only

for Romanticists

but

also for those

concerned

about the contours

of

the

literary

canon.

Ross's

argument

has

three basic

premises:

hat we inherit ournarrativesof

literary

history,

as well

as our critical

vocabulary

and

assumptions,

rom the

poetry

and criticismof

the

major

male romantic

poets;

that these romantic

narratives, erms,

and

assumptionsweredeveloped n response o, and often in defenseagainst,the

powerfulpresence

of women

poets

who

produced popular

and

acclaimed

work in the

years

between

1790

and

1830;

and

that the

romantic

ideology,

an

ideology scripted through

the forms of masculine

desire,

both

enabled

and

eventually

erased this rich tradition

of British

women's

poetry.

Ross's

36666

Tradition and the Talents of Women

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