Female Writing
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------- ------- CZI (eds) ZSÓFIA B ÁR GABRIELLA P ETRES CSIZMADIA TITY N DE I ho is a woman and how is she mirrored in literature? Even G W N though the above question has been repeated so many times, this OF OF volume tries to answer it again. This time from the point of view of N some less-known works of Hungarian literature. Feminist theory WRITI represents the basic common background of all the papers collected TIO N Identity in Female Writing. However, the C in Narrative Construction of le TIO authors combine feminist theory with narrative theory, the cognitive C theory of literary character and autobiography theory, which results in STRU Fema N STRU the extension of the borders of literary interpretation and thus literary N historical essays examine new perspectives of their fields of study. N I All the papers focus on the variability of female identity construction TITY G in the process of writing. They investigate the interrelation of female N N identity, female language, literary genres and the question of the IDE canonization of women writers. WRITI The goal of this volume is to get the reader acquinted with unknown NARRATIVEOF CO female writers, forgotten works of male writers, unvalued genres and CO NARRATIVE hidden female literary canons. Research within feminist studies has achieved new ways of approach Fe m a l e to previously unnoticed works which could add new values to the IN history of 20th century Hungarian literature. The essays, which fulfill the above task, have been written by the following scholars: Andrea Puskás, Gyula Rigó, Zsófia Bárczi, Liliana Bolemant, Gabriella Petres Csizmadia, Krisztián Benyovszky, Anikó N. Tóth and Zoltán Németh. (eds) ZI C SIZMADIA SIZMADIA C TVÖS ÁR EÖ Y B UNIVERSIT PRESS ETRES P ZSÓFIA ISBN 978-963-312-181-8 GABRIELLA 2013.12.19. 14:48:21 ------- ------- nyitrai_borito.indd 1 Nyitrai_angol_7-94_:press 2013.12.18. 16:59 Page 1 Zsófia Bárczi – Gabriella Petres Csizmadia (eds) NARRATIVE CONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITY IN FEMALE WRITING Nyitrai_angol_7-94_:press 2013.12.19. 13:13 Page 3 Zsófia Bárczi – Gabriella Petres Csizmadia (eds) NARRATIVE CONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITY IN FEMALE WRITING Budapest, 2013 Nyitrai_angol_7-94_:press 2013.12.19. 11:45 Page 4 This volume is supported by VEGA grant project No 1/0414/11 “Gender Identity from the point of view of Liguistics and Literary Science”. Reviewers Dr. József Keserű, PhD & Gabriella Nagy, PhD Editors Zsófia Bárczi – Gabriella Petres Csizmadia © Editors and authors, 2013 ISBN 978 963 312 181 8 www. eotvoskiado.hu Executive publisher: András Hunyady Editor-in-Chief: Dániel-Levente Pál Layout: Tibor Anders Cover: Ildikó Csele Kmotrik Printed by: Equilibria, s.r.o., Košice Nyitrai_angol_7-94_:press 2013.12.18. 16:59 Page 5 CONTENTS Foreword (Zsófia Bárczi –Gabriella Petres Csizmadia) ..................7 Andrea Puskás What is a Woman? ...................................................................... 9 Gyula Rigó Until Departed by Death? ...................................................... 39 Zsófia Bárczi The Novels of Piroska Szenes .................................................. 67 Liliana Bolemant Patchwork-Girls ........................................................................ 97 Gabriella Petres Csizmadia Identity Construction Th ough Ther peutic Writing ........ 129 Krisztián Benyovszky Gender and Genre in the Mystery Novels of Katalin Baráth .................................................................... 153 Anikó N. Tóth “If there is no given identity” ................................................ 185 Zoltán Németh The Emergence of a New Canon in Hungarian Literature – Women’s Literature .............................................................. 215 Nyitrai_angol_7-94_:press 2013.12.18. 16:59 Page 7 Contents FOREWORD Feminist criticism is not only one of the most important contemporary trends but also one of the most productive methods. The questions of feminism, the feminine and the female appear in numerous literary, sociological, anthropological and political studies and represent a border issue in several fields of study. The essays collected here are about the role of women in literature, female identity, the female body in the process of writing and “female genres”. However, the two basic questions are centred around the variability of the construction of female identity in the process of writing or how the historical and cultural construction of female identity is mirrored in female writing and how a literary canon is constructed, where and in which literary genres female writers and their works are placed in a literary canon, which is so male-centred, and so is the Hungarian literature of the 20th century. The first essay introduces the topic of investigation from a theoretical perspective. ‘What is a Woman? – Female Identity in the Mirror of Feminist Criticism’ examines a key issues of feminist theory, such as the faces of identity, its relationship to language and the several factors that play a role in the formation of identity. Female ghosts project images of erotic attraction and seduction. Three short stories – Auguste Villiers de l’isle-Adam Vera, Dezső Kosztolányi Hrussz Krisztina csodálatos látogatása [The Wonderful Visit of Krisztina Hrussz], and Géza Szilágyi Éjjel a fogadóban [Night at the Inn] – examine the literary representation of the female ghost together with the reasons of post mortem encounter communication between the living and the returned female ghosts. The following two essays deal with forgotten Hungarian female writers who lived in the same period in minorities. One of them in 7 Nyitrai_angol_7-94_:press 2013.12.18. 16:59 Page 8 Preface Czechoslovakia (Piroska Szenes) and the other one in Transylvania (Maria Berde). The study about Piroska Szenes analyses two novels: Az utolsó úr [The Last Lord] (1927) and Egyszer élünk [We Only Live Once] (1935). The essay which analyses Maria Berde also investigates two novels: Tüzes kemence [Hot Furnace] and Szent szégyen [The Sacred Disgrace]. Both authors stress the role of narration in the construction of identity. The following essay: ‘Identity Construction Through Therapeutic Writing: The Interpretation of Asszony a fronton [Woman on the Front], an Autobiographical Novel by Alaine Polcz’ also tries to focus on the same topic, the role of narration in the construction of identity, but this time from the point of view of the autobiography. A contemporary Hungarian female crime fiction writer, Katalin Baráth is the topic of the next essay, which analyses the relationship between crime fiction and feminism focusing on the characteristic features of the role of female detectives. The main aim of the next essay is to point out how the narrative identity of the two novels’ narrators is formed, that is, the elements of the protagonists’ female identity in the novels of Zsuzsa Rakovszky. The last essay maps contemporary Hungarian women’s literature after 1989 and points out the social, political, cultural, medial and literary processes as well as trends in literary theory that led to the formation of a new female canon. The eight essays of this volume focus particularly on Hungarian literature and give us a summarized view of the ways of creating female objects, which are constructed through the various processes of narration. They examine several genres and the possible points of view of literary canons and construction processes. Zsófia Bárczi – Gabriella Petres Csizmadia 8 Nyitrai_angol_7-94_:press 2013.12.18. 16:59 Page 9 Contents ANDREA PUSKÁS WHAT IS A WOMAN? Female Identity in the Mirror of Feminist Criticism Abstract • • • • • The paper is devoted to the exploration of female identity in the mirror of feminist criticism; its objective is to establish a definition and identify the core components of female identity. Various approaches to defining female identity are introduced and examined, and at the same time grouped according to their primary focus or emphasis. It ties together feminist theories that pay special attention to historical development of female identity, theories that emphasise the social construction of identity, that focus on the female body. The investigation underlines the differences between collective and individual identity, presents, compares and contrasts the different understandings of the sex/gender system and the place of female identity in this system with special attention to the poststructuralist theory in feminism on sex and gender. One of the most frequently discussed issues within feminism is the connection between identity and language. This facet of feminist theory is discussed in a subchapter which focuses on the notion of language acquisition, the relation of language to society, and the links between feminism, deconstruction and psychoanalysis. The investigation has proved that it is more adequate to identify which factors have an important role in the formation of female identity than which factors actually comprise that identity. Race, age, class, sexual orientation, nationality, idiosyncratic personal experience (a wholly unique store of experiences), religion, political views and intellectual abilities are among the central categories that always shape the experience of being one sex or another, always contributing to the creation of personal identity. Key words: identity, construct, sex, gender, language, female body, collective and individual identity 9 Nyitrai_angol_7-94_:press 2013.12.18. 16:59 Page 10 Andrea Puskás I. Introduction Female identity is one of the crucial questions