Women's Literature Reflection

Although it has only been four lessons, the insights that I have gained and the changes in my original opinions toward make it seem like a longer time has passed. While I’ve always enjoyed literature, it has evolved (for me) into something that I should do, rather than just something I happen to do. We looked at the scientific benefits of studying literature, and the study speaks for itself. By reading quality works, we will become more adept at understanding people, and thereby the world around us. The purpose could be seen as ‘practicing the human experience’. Reading literature is like a trial run of social interaction, allowing us to be a part of someone’s world without even having to know them.

With this in mind about literature, the presence of such a thing as women’s literature reveals the sexism inherent in our society. When I first started the year, I was quite frustrated with this distinction. After all, there are strong female characters and writers in literature. Later on, however, when presented with the numbers (surprisingly by Mr. Michael) and after seriously considering the books and protagonists on my bookshelf, I began to see the huge disparity that still exists today. Despite this, I believe that relegating all literature written by women or for women to the category ‘women’s literature’ would be inaccurate. While women are underrepresented in literature (more info here), this is a separate issue from women’s literature. The genre is very nuanced and hard to define, but a superficial marker of women’s literature may be passing the Bechdel test.

The value of studying women’s literature lies in the ‘balance of stories’ that we learnt about back in Grade 11. Chimamanda Adiche’s TED Talk on the Danger of a Single Story reminds us that telling only one story of a people will rob them of their dignity, dehumanize them, and make us see them only as the stories say they are. Women’s literature is important because it removes the stereotypes surrounding women, and reiterates to readers that the stories shared by people are the same whoever they are.

Munro’s social realism was especially significant in the 1950s to 1980s, as those were the main years of second wave feminism. What distinguished this particular brand of feminism from its predecessors was that it had more of a ‘spirit’, especially in how there wasn’t any one specific thing they were fighting for. There was also a movement of ‘consciousness raising’, where personal stories were politicized to bring attention to ordinary women’s lives. Munro’s stories are a perfect example of this, as her narratives of normal lives achieve exactly what ‘consciousness raising’ aimed to do. Her stories also created a starting point for other women to know that they weren’t alone, and could share their experiences.  

This brings us back to Munro’s contributions to gender equality. By providing the balance of stories that was needed in the literary world, Munro showed that the similarities between men and women are far more than the differences between them. The thing that I both enjoyed and hated most in these stories was how ‘normal’ they were. On one hand, it was very depressing when every story turned out like how it would in real life, with no room for magic or unicorns or aliens (L). On the other hand, Munro made poetry out of ordinary situations, without embellishing or changing them at all. I really enjoyed this minimalism in her work, especially as it made it seem like any one of us could be ‘interesting enough’ to be in a book.

Lastly, I also believe Munro made a very powerful statement about feminism through her stories. None of the Alice Munro stories I read had only women or men in them, which reminds us that feminism is about the equality of the sexes, and not man-hating. Even Simone De Beauvoir supports this – in her theory of the other she concludes that the sexes should not aim to tear each other down, but rather live respectfully each in their own right. 

Note: This post is a little late, I originally wrote it on a word document but then forgot to post it. Sorry!