How to Suppress Women’s Writing Joanna Russ

She didn’t write it.  But it’s clear she did the deed.

She wrote it, but  she shouldn’t have.  It’s political, sexual, masculine, feminist.

She wrote it, but  look what she wrote about.  The bedroom, the kitchen, her family, other women.

She wrote it, but  she only wrote one of it.  “Jane Eyre. Poor dear, that’s all she ever....”

She wrote it, but  she isn’t really an artist, and it isn’t really art.  It’s a thriller, romance, a children’s book. It’s sci fi.

She wrote it, but  she had help.  Robert Browning. Branwell Bronte. Her own “masculine” side.

She wrote it, but  she’s an anomaly.  Woolf. With Leonard’s help...

She wrote it, but  it’s only interesting/included in the canon for one, limited reason.  Kate Chopin – an anomaly of subject.  Charlotte Perkins Gilman – an anomaly of genre.  Emily Dickenson – an anomaly of form.

She wrote it, but  there are very few of her.  Jane Austen – the female Shakespeare  Edith Wharton – the female James

When Anthologizing...  Delete, and then...  (p. 65 of Russ)

What is a Feminist Text? To earn feminist approval, it must perform one or more of the following functions:  serve as a forum for women;  help to achieve cultural androgyny;  provided role-models;  promote sisterhood;  augment consciousness-raising

Feminist Literature The texts must either be ‘free from or critical of phallocentric masculinist, patriarchal, sexist ideologies and themes or be informed by a critical analysis of woman’s position in society as a woman’ (Spedding, 1994, quoted in Joan Scanlon and Julia Swindells, ‘Bad Apple’ 1994, p.45). Feminist texts ‘reveal a critical awareness of women’s subordinate position and of gender as a problematic category, however this is expressed’ (Rita Felski, 1989, Beyond Feminist Aesthetics: Feminist Literature and Social Change (1989) p. 14).