Scribbling Women A Jury Of Her Peers: American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx by Elaine Showalter Review by: Carole DeSanti The Women's Review of Books, Vol. 26, No. 4 (July / August 2009), pp. 5-7 Published by: Old City Publishing, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20698204 . Accessed: 09/10/2014 11:57

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This content downloaded from 149.130.186.228 on Thu, 9 Oct 2014 11:57:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions women writers

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September 10-12, 2009

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A JuryOf Her Peers: American Women Writers fromAnne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx and By Elaine Showalter Readings, panels, with: New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009, 608 pp., $30.00, hardcover workshops

Salile Bingham Reviewed DeSanti by Carole Nikky Finney Holly Goddard Jones he that comes to mind over the Men can do and Women know itwell. image best, Gina McCauley I course of reading Elaine Showalter's A Jury Preeminence in all and each is yours a Yet some small of ours. Christine Schutt I ofHer Peers is that of stage-set concealed grant acknowledgement a and JL behind theatrical scrim, opaque Susan Vreeland mysterious. As the spotlights come on one by one, But the human appetite for the taboo and the scene behind the scrim is slowly revealed as a forbidden, along with puzzling evidence that work could be huge, complicated tableau vivant of lives, deaths, women's "intellectually inferior" births, loves, and struggles, portrayed by costumed highly marketable, set the stage formuch of what actors and set the of successive was to come. now: against backdrop Register untold of women's narrative an eras?the great story literary Revealingly, the firstknown work by effort on these shores. The effect of thewhole is American woman writer was A True History of the in its and sometimes in its and Restoration Mrs. Rowlandson, stunning scope shocking Captivity of Mary www.uky.edu/wwk particulars. Altogether, A Jury ofHer Peers is a published in 1682, an account of the 1676 Indian in or 257-2874 generous, significant guide to heretofore uncharted raids inWestern Massachusetts that resulted the call (859) a author's abduction and three-month terrain. Showalter has cut path through the imprisonment wilderness. among the Narragansett. Rowlandson's captivity Indeed, it is in the wilderness that her epic narrative sets the tone formany of the lives that begins. A Jury ofHer Peers opens with the New follow: the paths ofwomen writers, as described by England Puritans, reminding us thatUS women's Showalter, have been characterized by difficult 1979-2009 or female literary ancestors, the first two of whom dislocations, epics of peregrination, flights of were followed confinement?and born in England and traveled to the New imagination, by poor World by sea, insisted on putting pen to paper nourishment. Rowlandson recounts her diet among despite God's apparent decree that they were the Indians: intellectually inferiorbeings, had nothing of worth not merit attention. Horses' and and all sorts of wild to express, and did public guts ears, in and at the Notoriety, they had been told, wrongly invaded birds...Also Bear, Venison, Beavers, Tortois, Lexington If Rattle-snakes: their appropriate terrain, the private sphere. their Frogs, Squirils, Dogs, Skunks, University of Kentucky was of Trees. writings did happen to achieve publication, it yea, the very Barks only as anomalies and with a great fuss of preamble Anne America's first is an theme. Women writers and apology. Bradstreet, Entrapment ongoing woman are as poet, wrote: held captive in oppressive marriages, in the

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This content downloaded from 149.130.186.228 on Thu, 9 Oct 2014 11:57:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions first to have any public voice at all?have had with the dispossessed races of their new nation. Catherine Maria Sedgwick (1789-1867), a New HarrietBeecher Stowe, despite Englander famous in the 1820s, possessed "a keen j^B?^^^^ I^^B and for the all the controversysurrounding [Uncle Tom's daring sympathy outsider," including ^^^Bjjjj^SB^jB slaves and Native Americans. However, she Cabin]and thecriticism of it,both in its adopted anti-abolitionist views later in her life, ^^^^H^Hj^HH abandoned a novel about and ? own era and ours, is "themost slavery, eventually ^ ^ |||2^ | described her own successful literary career as importantfigure in the history of "accidental," a pastime to console her for being unmarried and childless. The prolific Lydia Maria - ^Bj^^^^^^^^&j Child (1802 1880), born to a working-class Medford, Massachusetts, family and raised with little formal education, took issue with what she felt case - or was "deficient ... moral with of JuliaWard Howe (1819 1910) Genevi?ve civilization and into the forecastle of thewhale ship Sedgwick's courage" Taggard (1894 -1948); in sanitariums, like Charlotte on the lonely ocean." And with that,we are off and regard to the issue of race. Child herself adopted an Perkins Gilman (1869 -1935); by domestic running. According to a writer in 1798?a novelist outspoken stance against slavery, proposing encirclement like Lydia Maria Child (1802 -1880); herself?novels became "the favourite, and the interracial marriage as a solution to the racial - and inmany cases by imprisoning structures of most dangerous, kind of reading now adopted by divide. Lydia Huntley Sigourney (1791 1865) was thought. Following a highly productive and public the generality of young ladies...They often pervert also impassioned about the injustices perpetrated career, Shirley Jackson (1916 -1965), according to the judgment,mislead the affections, and blind the on Native peoples, and continued towrite on the In came Jonathan Le them's introduction to Jackson's book understanding." topic despite its unpopularity. 1852 the We Have Always Lived in theCastle, which Showalter The mass market for women's fiction truly juggernaut Uncle Tom's Cabin, a worldwide quotes, "succumbed almost entirely to a crippling established itself in the 1850s, and itwas in this era sensation that united the category of bestselling ... a on eve doubt and fear, squalid, unreasonable that the battle lines between literary and novel with the issue of slavery the of the male canonization vs. female its an agoraphobia?a sort of horrible parody of the full marketplace acclaim, Civil War, earning author unparalleled time homemaker's role she assumed." Even when popular appeal, began to be drawn. Showalter position in this canon: Showalter argues that the uprooting is done by thewomen themselves, writes, "As women's fiction became more and more Harriet Beecher Stowe, despite all the controversy their expressive, imaginative selves have often commercially popular, male editors and writers surrounding the novel and the criticism of it,both more a in its own era and is most remained restricted and bound?as if the world protested vigorously against female ours, "the important didn't know what to do with them, or indeed, they invasion of the literary marketplace." In an figure in the history ofAmerican women writers." did not know what to do with themselves. anecdote thatpresages the still-unresolved tensions In themid-1850s, black women writers began to One thing, though, is clear: women writers of our own day, she recounts Nathaniel emerge to speak in theirown voices, although these eras Maria Cummins's through the have demonstrated talent, ingenu Hawthorne's rage against works raised "problems of authorial identification," ity, creativity, and ambition in abundance. They bestselling novel The Lamplighter (1854). Hawthorne and were "difficult to categorize in terms of genre." contributed energetically the creation of an railed angrily to his publisher,William Ticknor, From this erawe have FrancesWatkins Harper (1825 - American an initial a woman literary culture, effort defined, 1922), free black from Baltimore who ly, as replacing British content with American America is now wholly given over to a d?d published poetry in response to Stowe in the scenes and characters in both children's and adult mob of scribbling women, and I should have abolitionist press, thanking thenovelist. literature.From the early English settlers,Showalter no chance of success while the public taste is In 1861, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl us to woman so a reconnects the first American play occupied with their trash... [w]hat is the appeared under pseudonym, presented and - wright, Mercy Otis Warren; Phyllis Wheatly, the mystery of these innumerable editions of The "edited" by Lydia Maria Child who was widely, firstAfrican American woman poet; Judith Sargent Lamplighter?" at the time, considered to have authored it. The Murray, the first major feminist author; and mystery was resolved only in 1971, when Jean as Susanna Rowson, the first bestselling American A Juryof Her Peers is both thematically and Fagan Yellin established the author Harriet woman novelist. Rowson's novel Charlotte a in E. Temple, chronologically organized. Certain subjects Jacobs, born slave North Carolina. Harriet a published in 1794, went through 200 printings, JL JL.echo and recur from the Puritans through Wilson's Our Nig; or, Sketchesfrom theLife of Free and race and a was stealing its way (writes her biographer in 1870) the modernists beyond: slavery, Black, in Two-StoryWhite House (1859) also "into the study of the divine and theworkshop of madness and captivity, and the lack of social and questioned as to its authenticity before being critical for women's efforts. in in our own themechanic; into the parlor of the accomplished leverage literary verified the twentieth century; and lady and into the bed-chamber of her waiting maid; Showalter discusses at length the relationship that era, the provenance of The Bondswoman's Narrative on extreme race- women writers?the is into the log hut the border of modern and/or class-privileged by "Hannah Crafts," another tale of the 1850s,

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This content downloaded from 149.130.186.228 on Thu, 9 Oct 2014 11:57:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions still in question. Throughout Showalter's history, baggage of history, so vividly evoked, may not be thework and social interests of a wide spectrum of thrown off so easily, and Annie Proulx's statement in can writers converge, part, overlap, and collide that "[w]riters write about anything theywant, myriad ways and under many guises. However, the any sex they want, any place they want" seems of Women a a long history of absent institutional support for more starting point than working definition of ^ writers of color is striking: even after 350-odd years the condition of women writers today. Certainly of unstinting effort,a petition to theNew York Times they can, but do they?And if they do, what are the was as move from the writer's desk Book Review put forward in 1987 to protest the consequences they nonrecognition of Toni Morrison's Beloved in that into the public world? fiction awards. an women writers for25 year's As editor of (primarily) Though some influences among women writers years, I have seen toomany still held "captive" by can be traced (especially on the subject of race) both internal and external forces: talent held Showalter does not propose or analyze patterns in hostage by domestic demands and internalburdens thework she discusses; this history is sometimes on thewriting self;worthwhile effort ignored and more akin to the silent passing of a baton. When unheralded; a deserved sense of authorship one voice falters or falls silent, another picks up, waylaid by phantoms of fraudulence or nearly undefined by what came before?in part insufficiency.Patterns of social oppression and self because there is no codifying or categorizing of the subjugation thrive, while models for creative earlier efforts,no agreement about what shaped or resilience remain elusive. From where I sit, our influenced the forebears' life and work. In many "rooms of one's own" are haunted by legacies of women cases, barely acknowledge female literary dependency, martyrdom, and self-annihilation that ancestors, although apparently they did experience are well-documented here. The cultish fascination ? Harper: 978-0-06-168441-8 hardcover George Eliot's death in 1880 as "the exorcism of an with suicidal female genius?i.e., Virginia Woolf, ? $27.99 496 oppressive ghost." Eliot's accomplishments were Anne Sexton, and Sylvia Plath?persists despite (NCR) pages to set an standard?and perceived have impossible Adrienne Rich's emphatic disavowal of this her strategic male nom de plume had allowed her archetype at Sexton's 1974memorial: "We have had work to be taken seriously from the outset. enough suicidal women poets, enough suicidal as women ..." to mention Muriel Understandably, femininity is by definition (not Rukeyser's silent, dependent, hidden, suppressed, and poetic quip: "I'd rather be Muriel / than be dead nonauthoritative?all qualities opposed to the and be Ariel"). With the continuing weakness of and and writer's task?various strategies for disidentifying structural institutional support?robust with the feminine persist. well-intended criticism, resources outside the Showalter devotes her chapter on Edith publishing industry?women writers can find Wharton and Willa Cather, two of our best-known themselves sacrificing depth and innovation, THE and most-canonized American women writers, to intellect and history, and the intangible rewards of the theme of writing "against" gender. She argues writing, clinging to that forwhich there seems an BEHIND that both Wharton and Cather, different in every unlimited, urgent demand from the marketplace. JUDITH NIBS other way, shared a strategy of disclaiming After all, who of all of themany hungry voices in feminine or at least the conventional, their lives is them for else? Women identity, asking anything Perennial: of the writer"?or, as writers from the acclaimed to the unknown Harper belittling persona "lady ? "authorine." as most issues 978-0-06-117602-9 Cather put it, the They emerge struggle with multiples of these paperback an ? notable, perhaps, forprying open yet another set of simultaneously?and they do itwhile balancing $14.99 ($18.99 Can.) 400 pages prison doors: the social definitions imposed on astonishing array of other life responsibilities. them. Setting their voices against those of their And, too, readers and writers alike are (often a new no peers puts both in context, however: unknowingly) caught in the unresolved battle of longer supporting players in themale canon, they the 1850s between "the literaryvs. the commercial," as as vs. emerge distinctive representatives, diplomats which continues code formale worth female and ambassadors for a much Hawthorne's to The Fi population broader, inauthenticity. objections |> more vaster, and diverse and self-transforming than Lamplighter in 1855 created the template for the we have been led to believe. Jonathan Franzen/Oprah Winfrey debacle, in which Franzen publicly expressed his distaste that For this, A Jury ofHer Peers is an invaluable Winfrey had chosen his novel The Corrections (2001) resource. For the intellectual sifting ofmany forher book club. One of his complaints was that dusty volumes and the carrying-forward of Oprah "picked enough schmaltzy, one-dimensional these lives, Showalter deserves enormous credit. [books] that I cringe, myself [at being included]." The beauty and reward of this history lies in its Disinvited from the show, he won the National precise archeology, its bringing to light individual Book Award for thatyear. lines of poetry, plots of novels, observations, What seems evident fromA Juryof Her Peers is and dramatic moments from our unseen that women writers across the centuries have insights, collective in both life and art. for a vast of yet past, Page undergone process self-transformation, Harper Perennial: page, the number of revelations is astonishing: my altering landscapes, cultures, and communities book ? 978-0-06-078666-3 paperback bristles with Yet sense and life copy thickly yellow flags. my by book, story by story,poem by poem, by ?512 as $15.99 ($19.99 Can.) pages is that this history could have been twice as long; life,whether or not theyhave acknowledged this a that a single volume can hardly meet the task. a collective effort.The struggle is ongoing, work Still, I cannot wholeheartedly agree with in-progress; fragile, vulnerable, subject to reversal Showalter's optimistic conclusion, that women and, I think, recently under siege?a process of writers have passed through three distinct stages, transformation that is an epic unto itself,of which and and have moved next to written. "feminine, feminist, female," the chapters have yet be ? HARPER PERENNIAL a "no 4^ into fourth stage, "free," longer constrained Visit www.! larpcrAcademic.com by their femininity" and enjoying a "seamless Carole DeSanti is vice president, editor at large at to sign up forour free c-bulletins. participation in the literary mainstream." The Viking, a member of thePenguin Group.

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