A Ludic Reading of Conflictual Dynamics in Three Short Stories by Grace Paley
RSA JOURNAL 28/2017 CRISTINA DI MAIO All Is Fair in Play and War: A Ludic Reading of Conflictual Dynamics in Three Short Stories by Grace Paley But most women in our P.T.A. were independent – by necessity and disposition. We were, in fact, the soft-speaking tough souls of anarchy. (Grace Paley, “Friends”) Grace Paley (1922-2007) spent a lifetime coping with the difficult task of being a poet, a writer, a mother, a woman, and an activist. Sometimes she struggled, and she was not afraid or ashamed of admitting it, even through her art. Still, her maiden name was Goodside, and this innate positivity was probably what pushed her to keep facing that hard challenge and win it, on her own terms. She thought that being a versatile human being and a committed person was not only inevitable for her, but also would make her an even better mother – and she claimed this vision through her artistic production as well. Paley’s biographer, Judith Arcana, in fact, remarks how Grace Paley chose to embrace her motherhood and her activism and integrate them both in her writing, thus challenging “the romantic image of the (archetypically male) artist as lonely seeker and interpreter of truth and beauty” (80). Her fictional, semi-autobiographical world is mostly populated by mothers who must deal with children, teachers, working hours, chores, sentimental troubles, social interactions and even political activism all at once; in doing so, she integrated all of her life experience into her writing and managed to reach a considerable share of readers, who similarly attempt to balance the maternal experience with their own individuality and personal goals.
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