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Viewing report
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Women-Writing-Women:. Edition No. 1
VDM Publishing House, Dec 2008, Pages: 160
The Woman Question served as a catalyst in Kate
Chopin's, Nella Larsen's, and Willa Cather's
portrayal of the eroticized female body. The question
evolved, in part, from Herbert Spencer's 1873 article
'Psychology of the Sexes' and centered around
Spencer's 'theories' on woman's nature, her function,
and her differences—biological, sexological, and
sociological—from man. Chapter one historicizes the
Woman Question by examining its influence in these
three areas. Chapters two, three, and four analyze
one novel by each author. Chopin's The Awakening
introduces the literary study because it operates as
a transitional text challenging the Cult of True
Womanhood while simultaneously introducing the
sexualized New Woman. In Larsen's Quicksand, the New
Woman is conceptualized within a black female body, a
body that boldly confronts racist notions of woman.
Lastly, Cather questions heteropatriarchal hegemony
through her eroticized, feminized landscape in O
Pioneers!. Although each author develops her heroine
differently, all three construct strong female
characters who energize the Woman Question debate,
forcing a re-examination of it in ways ignored or
unrealized before.
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