VOICES OF WOMEN

VI SEMESTER
CORE COURSE: ENG6 B11

B.A. ENGLISH
(2019 Admission onwards)
CBCSS

UNIVERSITY OF CALICUT
School of Distance Education,
Calicut University P.O.,
Malappuram - 673 635, Kerala.

19018
 School of Distance Education

UNIVERSITY OF CALICUT
School of Distance Education
Study Material
VI Semester
Core Course (ENG6 B11)
B.A. ENGLISH

VOICES OF WOMEN
Prepared by:
Doyal Jobin Jacob,
Assistant Professor on Contract,
School of Distance Education
University of Calicut.
Scrutinized by:
Dr.C. A. Assif
Associate Professor of English
MGGAC, Mahe.

DISCLAIMER
“The author(s) shall be solely responsible for the
content and views expressed in this book”

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CONTENTS

MODULE I - ESSAYS
MODULE II - POETRY
MODULE III - FICTION
MODULE IV - DRAMA AND FILM

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VOICES OF WOMEN

Introduction to the paper

This paper consists of four modules which are meant to

promote women’s writing. The paper also shows how sharp is
the tool of literature for voicing the concerns of the voiceless.
This paper begins with essays starting with Chimamanda
Ngozi Adichie and moves to the very next module that is
poetry starting with Eunice D’ Souza and ending with Judith
Wright. The next module is fiction and the very last module is
drama and film. The paper is meant to introduce to the readers
some important female writers.

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MODULE 1: ESSAYS

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: We Should All Be

Feminists

About The Author

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is the author of novels, short
stories, and non-fiction. She was born in Enugu, Nigeria. Her
most recent novel is Americanah. She has won many awards,
including a MacArthur Fellowship and a Women's Prize for
fiction.
Summary
We Should All Be Feminists by bestselling Nigerian novelist
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a prominent figure for social
change, diversity, and global women's rights, draws on her
personal experiences growing up in Nigeria, as well as her
thoughts on what it means to be a feminist, and how gender
roles and norms are detrimental to both men and women. The
book begins with a brief introduction, in which Adichie
explains that the vignettes were inspired by a lecture she gave
during a conference focused on African culture and literature.
Admitting that she knew her discussion of feminism and the
stereotypes that accompany the word would be unpopular, she
hoped that both the lecture and the subsequent book would lead
to an important conversation about both African and global
feminism. The book then jumps into a series of vignettes,
primarily about Adichie's childhood in Lagos, Nigeria. In the
first story, Adichie recounts a conversation with her friend
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Okoloma, who died in 2005. She and Okoloma, close friends,

enjoyed debating with each other about challenging topics,
including politics, books, culture, and religion. In a heated
debate, Okoloma had called her a feminist – though Adichie
admits she didn't know what the word meant at the time,
Okoloma had said it with malice, as one might say the word
“terrorist.” Adichie never forgot that moment.
In another story from her childhood, she and a boy in the class
were rivals for the position of hall monitor. Though Adichie
received the best score in the class on the most recent test, the
teacher selected the boy for the position. Although Adichie
knew this was unfair at the time, she didn't understand that the
teacher's choice came from his own familiarity with seeing
men in positions of power. When Adichie finally asked the
teacher why she didn't get the position, the teacher said he
thought it was obvious that the position would have to go to a
boy. Adichie takes on other moments of sexism common in
Nigerian culture when she writes about a male companion who
didn't understand why she was upset when a valet thanked him
for the tip she paid. Adichie had to explain to him that despite
the fact that she had given the valet the money, he assumed
that Adichie's money must have come from a man, and thus
thanked her male companion. Adichie's first novel, Purple
Hibiscus, was released in 2003. The novel tells the story of a
prominent Nigerian hero prone to violent outbursts at home,
whose wife, fed up with his violence and her own fear, poisons
him. Many strangers approached Adichie after the publication
of her novel to tell her that despite her obvious interest in
women's rights, she shouldn't call herself a feminist. According
to these men, feminists could never be married, and so, would
never find happiness. To fight back against feminist
stereotypes, Adichie began to refer to herself as a happy
feminist, and then extended the definition repeatedly as people
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told her other stereotypes they had about feminists: they don't
wear lip gloss, they don't wear high heels, they can't be
African, they hate all men. Finally, Adichie became so fed up
with the stereotypes, she stopped adding to her long definition,
instead, embracing herself as a feminist, in part, to prove that
not all feminists are the same. Ultimately, Adichie examines
how gender roles and gender norms in Africa and beyond are
detrimental not only for women but for men as well – by
limiting the roles that each gender can play in society,
everyone loses. She makes a plea at the end of her book for
everyone, no matter gender, country of origin, race, religion, or
sexual preference, to embrace feminism. She encourages men
to consider how sexism has forced them to avoid being
vulnerable, and how it forces women to appear weak. At the
end of the essay, Adichie defines feminists for herself, saying
that in her mind, feminism is the act of admitting that there is
something wrong with gender as it stands in the world today;
feminists are the people who are interested in talking and doing
something about it.

Review Questions
Answer in two or three sentences

 What do you think is the main content of the essay?

 Why do men disagree to accept Adichie as a feminist?

 At the end of the essay, what do Adichie defines

feminists?

Paragraph questions

 Analyse the title of the essay, in connection with the

main contents described?
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 Is it possible to connect those events described in the

essay, to today’s context?
At the end of the essay, what plea does the author makes?
Essay question

 Analyse the event that took place in the class room?

FURTHER READING
https://feminisminindia.com › Culture › Books
https://people.unica.it › aideesu › files › 2019/11
https://www.chimamanda.com › Books

Virginia Woolf: Shakespeare’s Sister

About The Author
Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) is recognised as one of
the most innovative writers of the 20th century. Perhaps best
known as the author of Mrs. Dalloway (1925) and To the
Lighthouse (1927), she was also a prolific writer of essays,
diaries, letters and biographies. Both in style and subject
matter, Woolf’s work captures the fast-changing world in
which she was working, from transformations in gender roles,
sexuality and class to technologies such as cars, airplanes and
cinema. Influenced by seminal writers and artists of the period
such as Marcel Proust, Igor Stravinsky and the Post-
Impressionists, Woolf’s work explores the key motifs of
modernism, including the subconscious, time, perception, the
city and the impact of war. Her ‘stream of consciousness’
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technique enabled her to portray the interior lives of her

characters and to depict the montage-like imprint of memory.

Summary
Shakespeare’s Sister is an extract taken from “A Room of
One’s Own.” In “Shakespeare’s Sister”, Virginia Woolf
explores the plight of women in society in England during the
15th and 16th centuries. The extract begins with the writer’s
disappointment on not being able to find concrete reasons for
the poor plight of women. Instead of being flooded by a variety
of views that do not help her arrive at a conclusion, she decides
to narrow down the inquiry. Woolf seeks answers to her
questions from the historian, who is known to record facts. She
endeavours to find out from the historian the conditions under
which women Lived, turning her attention to women who lived
in England during the time of Queen Elizabeth, 1.
The writer is puzzled by the observation that there were no
known women writers in an era in which so many men wrote
songs, sonnets and other works of literature. Using the analogy
of a spider’s web, Virginia Woolf points to the close
association between fiction and life. Even when the link
between the two is not very obvious, it still exists, she
maintains.
The writer turns to Professor Trevelyan’s History of England, a
well-known book of history. In her quest for the position of
women in society, she was appalled to read in this book that
“wife-beating was a recognized right of man, and was
practiced without shame by high as well as low.” As we know,
the concept of feminism supports women’s rights on the
grounds of equality of the sexes. So, Virginia Woolf is shocked
to know about the real plight of women from Professor

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Trevelyan’s historical records. Disturbing facts about the status

of women came to light as the writer continued reading
Trevelyan’s book: such as, girls who refused to marry a person
of her parents’ choice were locked up and beaten. In the
fifteenth century, marriage was not a matter of personal
feelings, but of family interests. Thus, the interests of the
women concerned were primarily ignored. The position of
women did not change much even two centuries later,
according to this history book. Even in the seventeenth
century, women of the upper and the middle class rarely chose
their own husbands. Both in terms of law and social customs,
the husband was the “lord and master,” and the wives had a
subservient position. However, women in literature (such as
Shakespeare’s female characters) and biographical accounts
(such as the seventeenth century memoirs of Verneys) have
strong personalities and distinct characters. Virginia Woolf
agrees with this observation of Professor Trevelyan, and then
adds that women had displayed strength of character in the
works of poets from the beginning of time. She cites many
characters as examples, such as, Antigone (of Sophocles’
drama), Clytemnestra (of Aeschylus’ play), Cleopatra, Lady
Macbeth, Rosalind and Desdemona of Shakespeare’s plays,
and Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina among several other examples.
All these women characters have dynamic personalities. Thus,
women in fiction or in works of literature are endowed with
strong personalities. But, in reality, the rights of women were
trampled upon and they were “locked up, beaten and flung
about the room”, as Professor Trevelyan points out. Thus, an
odd picture of woman comes to light. In terms of imagination
or creative literature, women receive high importance. But in
practical terms or in terms of real society, women are down
trodden and of no significance. In poetry, the woman is a
predominant and inspiring figure; in the lives of kings and

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conquerors in fiction she has great significance; her speeches

in literature reflect great thoughts. But, on the other side of the
coin, in reality a woman become a slave of any man her
parents chose for her, in real life a woman could hardly read or
spell, she was virtually illiterate and was regarded as a property
of her husband, always subject to his will.
A strange picture like that of an odd monster of a woman
would come to the fore, if one were to read the historian’s view
of women first and that of the poets’ afterwards. The writer
regrets the scarcity of detailed facts about women in recorded
works. There are no detailed substantial facts about women.
There is hardly any mention of her in history. This fact points
to her insignificant stature in society.
In an attempt to find women’s role or significance in history,
the writer turns our attention to Professor Trevelyan’s concept
of history. To this historian, history incorporated many things
such as, methods of agriculture, the Crusades (that is medieval
military expeditions made by Europeans to recover Holy
Land,) the University, the House of Commons (a part of the
parliament in England) etc. However, apart from mentioning a
few ladies of great stature such as Queen Elizabeth, there is no
mention of women. Not a single middle-class woman could
have been perceived to have participated in historical events or
in great movements, which comprise history. Even the famous
seventeenth century English diarist John Aubrey does not
mention her. The writer is shocked at the complete lack of
records about women. Lack of availability of information and
reading material regarding the female sex is a clear pointer to
the gender bias. Not only do historians and diarists fail to write
about women, even women themselves have added to their
obliteration by not writing about their own lives or maintaining
their own diaries. Virginia Woolf points out the great necessity
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for a mass of information about women, and wonders why

some brilliant scholar does not supply it. The feminist writer
feels that history could be re-written by including information
about women, or, at least a supplement could be added to
history books about women. Looking at the book shelves, she
finds it shockingly regrettable that there is no information
about women before the eighteenth century. The writer had
begun her exploration with the question of discrepancy
between men and women, which is manifested by the utter lack
of women’s writings in a prolific age of literature like the
Elizabethan age. But she failed to find a satisfactory answer to
such basic issues, such as, education and literacy of women,
and how they occupy themselves in their daily lives.
Apparently, they had no money of their own, and were married
of at a very young age without their consent being taken into
account. All the probing of the writer about the condition of
women are indicative of her concern for the basic rights of
women. The writer is reminded of an old deceased bishop
whose opinion about women was so low that he asserted that it
was impossible for any woman to have the genius of
Shakespeare whether in the past, present or future. Such an
attitude points to the suppression of women to the extent that
her identity, genius, intellect is completely denied by men.
Through an imaginative reconstruction, Woolf wonders what
would have happened to a talented woman if she were born in
the age of Shakespeare. Since facts about women were difficult
to obtain, the writer reflects upon what would have happened if
Shakespeare had a highly gifted sister. Woolf names the
hypothetical sister as Judith. Shakespeare, being a man had the
privileges of education and entertainment. He went to seek his
fortune in London. He worked in the theatre, became
successful as an actor, and lived in the centre of activity in the
famous city of London. In the meantime, his highly talented
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sister, one may suppose, stayed at home. Judith was as

imaginative and adventurous as her famous brother, but being a
girl, she was discriminated against and not educated. So, unlike
Shakespeare she did not have the privilege of studying
grammar and logic or studying Latin. Being a gifted person,
she was interested in reading books, and used to sometimes
pick up her brother’s book perhaps. When her parents came to
know of this, they told her to take care of “womanly” things
such as cooking and stitching. Being talented, she probably
wrote something, but knowing the strict restrictions imposed
on women, probably hid her writings or set them on fire. As
was the custom of her times, she was engaged to be married at
a very young age. When she refused to get married, she was
badly beaten by her father. Then her father stopped using such
corporal punishment, and tried to emotionally coerce her.
Driven by such external pressures, Judith ran away from home
to London. She had good music sense as well as a taste for the
theatre like her famous brother. When she expressed her desire
to act, men laughed at her, because she lived in an age whereby
a woman’s individual talents were greatly suppressed, and she
was expected to be confined to the four walls of her home. Her
literary genius did not wish to be rebuffed by such ante-
feminist attitudes in a male dominated society. An actor-
manager named Nick Greene became friendly with her’; and
she found herself pregnant. A woman of genius in
Shakespeare’s time was prone to exploitation by men. Judith
was ultimately led to commit suicide, as she was a woman of
talent, out of synchronization with the times she lived in.

Woolf’s imaginative reconstruction of Judith’s tale highlights

the plight of a woman of genius born in Shakespeare’s age.
Social and cultural exigencies made it impossible for talented
women to have existed and expressed themselves in

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Shakespeare’s times. Yet, the writer continues to think that

genius must have existed among women as well as amongst the
working class, even though it could not come to light. The
writer cites Emily Bronte (a nineteenth century woman
novelist) and Robert Burns (a working-class Scottish poet) as
examples of genius. Woolf feels that when a person reads
about a witch, or of a woman possessed by devils, or about an
outstanding man who had a mother — these may be taken as
indicators of the existence of a lost woman novelist or a
suppressed female poet whose talents did not find any
limelight.

Reflecting upon the story of Shakespeare’s sister, as the writer

had made it up, Woolf reinforces the point that any woman
who had extra-ordinary talent in the sixteenth century, would
have either gone crazy, or committed suicide, or lived in
isolation outside the village. Isolated because of her genius, she
would have regarded as a half-witch, half wizard, and people
would have either feared her or made fun of her. Even
nineteenth century women writers had to adopt male
pseudonyms, such as Curer Bell, George Eliot and George
Sand. Adopting the name of a man and assuming anonymity by
women were customs greatly encouraged by men. As Pericles,
the Athenian statesman and orator of fifth century BC had said,
publicity in women was a hateful quality. Thus, we see from
Virginia Woolf’s exposition, how women were suppressed,
their rights and fundamental identity denied.

In the concluding section of the essay, Woolf says that Judith,

the talented poet who could not express herself in writing and
was buried in the crossroads, still lives on. With deep empathy
for women whose rights are denied, the writer says that
Shakespeare’s sister lives on in women of today, and in women
who efface themselves to nurture their families. The
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opportunity to empower such women is soon coming within

our reach. The writer believes that in times to come, if women
are given space and freedom, and have the courage to express
their opinions in writing, if they view life objectively, if
women are able to look beyond Milton’s perspective (that Eve
was morally and intellectually lesser than Adam), then the
opportunity will come when Shakespeare’s sister (or women of
talent) will have a tangible identity of their own. If we create a
conducive environment, Judith can come in our midst and
freely express herself.

Review Questions
Answer in two or three sentences

 When did Judith desire to act what did men do?

 What did the man named Nick Greene do to Judith?

 What was Judith discriminated off?

paragraph questions

 Briefly describe the status of women as detailed in the

essay?

 What do you think the attitude of the essayist towards

women?

 Do women have an identity of her own?

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Essay question

 Do you think the status of women has changed in the

course of time?

FURTHER READING
https://gradesfixer.com › ... › Literature › Virginia Woolf
https://www.123helpme.com › essay › Shakespeares-Sis...
https://www.kibin.com › essay-examples › a-brief-sum...

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MODULE 2: POETRY
Eunice D Souza: Bequest

About The Author

Eunice de Souza is a contemporary Indian English language
poet, literary critic and novelist. Among her notable books of
poetry is Women in Dutch painting (1988). de Souza was born
and grew up in Pune, in a Goan Catholic family. She studied
English literature with an MA from the Marquette University in
Wisconsin, and a PhD from the University of Mumbai. She
taught English at St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, and was Head
of the Department until her recent retirement. She was involved
in the well-known literary festival Ithaka organized at the
college. She has also been involved in theater, both as actress
and director. She began writing novels with Dangerlok in 2001.
She has also written four children's books.) Aside from poetry
and fiction, de Souza has edited numerous anthologies and
collections and writes a weekly column for the Mumbai Mirror.

Summary
“Bequest” is a poem about passing down a woman’s true
emotions to their so-called other halves for the sake of
standards or floating along with the flow of conventions.
Through this piece, de Souza reveals how a woman speaker’s
mindset is shaped, revised, and amended from an early age.
The way she learns everything naturally is also monitored to
shape her mind according to the patriarchal structure. She used
to think showing one’s true emotions is symbolically portrayed
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by the image of Christ holding his heart. But she tried to follow
the same, society made her follow the standards. Finally, as a
grown-up woman, she thinks she is like a “plastic flower”,
devoid of truthfulness, selfhood, and most importantly her true
identity.
Structure & Form
Eunice’s poem “Bequest” consists of five stanzas with
irregular line count. There are a total of 21 lines that do not
follow a set rhyming pattern or meter. So, it is a free verse
poem. It is written from the perspective of a female speaker in
first-person. Therefore, it is also an example of a lyric poem.
The lyrical quality of the poem is present in its internally
rhyming lines. de Souza creates this internal rhyming by using
the repetition of similar sounds between the lines. Besides, the
form aptly adheres to the scheme of confessional poetry.
Poetic Devices
In “Bequest”, Eunice uses the following literary devices that
make her feministic ideas more forceful and emotive.
Irony: It is used in the fourth line of the poem “I used to think,
ugh.” Here, the speaker’s disgust with the image of Christ is
portrayed even though she was a Catholic.
Sarcasm: This device is used in the second stanza where the
speaker talks about her open-minded attitude.
Alliteration: It occurs in “stern standards”, “he hands”,
“Wise Woman”, “time to”, etc.
Allusion: There is an allusion to Christ’s sayings in the lines
“He says, take it as it comes” and “saying Child, learn from
me”.

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Simile: It is used in the following lines: “He says take it as it

comes”, “smiling endlessly, vacuously/ like a plastic flower”,
and “bequeath the heart, like a/ spare kidney”.
Metaphor: In the first stanza, the image of Christ holding his
heart is a metaphorical reference (or allusion) to Christ’s
sacrifice for mankind as well as his passion. In the last line, the
term “enemy” is a metaphor for a patriarchal person.
Themes
The important themes of “Bequest” are patriarchy, feminine
identity, womanhood, and convention vs individualism. de
Souza, being a feminist poet, explores the nuances of
conventional, patriarchal society and its impact on a woman’s
mind. She writes this piece from the perspective of a speaker
whose mind is shaped from an early age. The patriarchal
society has made her change her openness and truthfulness in
order to be a “Wise Woman”. Now, “her smile does not reflect
the true happiness of her heart. Rather it shows the faceless of
her emotions. In the last lines, she says that she has only her
heart to bequeath to her partner as a form of sacrifice.

Review Questions
Answer in two or three sentences

 Can this be considered as a lyric poem, if yes how?

 Does the persona shape her mind according to the

patriarchal structure?

 How is the image of Christ connected in the poem?

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Paragraph Questions

 “Her smile does not reflect the true happiness of her

heart. Rather it shows the fakeness of her emotions”. Comment
on the line?

 She thinks she is like a “plastic flower “why does she

think so?

Essay question

 Does this poem recall on the topic of female identity?

FURTHER READING
https://www.poetryinternational.org › BEQUEST › tile
https://www.thehillstimes.in › Featured
https://feminisminindia.com › Culture › Art & Poetry

Amy Lowell: Vintage

About The Author
An oft-quoted remark attributed to poet Amy Lowell applies to
both her determined personality and her sense of humour: "God
made me a business woman," Lowell is reported to have
quipped, "and I made myself a poet." During a career that
spanned just over a dozen years, she wrote and published over
650 poems, yet scholars cite Lowell's tireless efforts to awaken
American readers to contemporary trends in poetry as her more
influential contribution to literary history. Following her
untimely death in 1925, a collection of Lowell's work, published

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posthumously as what’s O’clock? was awarded the Pulitzer

Prize for Poetry in 1926. But a shift in poetic fashions all but
obliterated the memory of Lowell's poetic achievements. The
reasons for that eclipse lie both in the poet and in her audience.
Lowell was very prolific and very uneven. Because so much of
her poetry was bad, it was easy to judge her harshly. Moreover,
her best and most characteristic poetry was very puzzling to
conventional readers and remains so to this day. The language of
these poems is chiefly pictorial, with the result that she was
dismissed as a writer who touched only the physical surfaces of
the world and so failed to illuminate any of its deeper meanings.
Though critics note that Lowell, at her best, is a writer of
extraordinary verve, freshness, and beauty of expression, she is
little better understood sixty years after her death than she was
in 1912 when she published her first book of poems, A Dome of
Many-Coloured Glass. Lowell was born in Brookline,
Massachusetts, in 1874, into a prominent New England family.
As an essayist for the Dictionary of Literary Biography
recounted, "She was a descendant of Percival Lowell, a
merchant from Bristol who immigrated in 1639 to Newbury,
Massachusetts.
A Dome of Many-Coloured Glass Is Published in August of
1910, at the age of thirty-six, Lowell saw her first poem, "Fixed
Idea," published in the Atlantic. Other poems appeared regularly
in various periodicals over the next several years. In 1912,
Lowell's first collection of poetry was published. A Dome of
Many-Coloured Glass was termed by Dictionary of Literary
Biography essayists E. Claire Healey and Laura Ingram "a
typical first book, characterized by conventional themes,
traditional forms, and the limitations inherent in the work of a
solitary poet who had no contact with other practitioners of her
art." However, the critics noted that "Lowell’s honesty of
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expression and an occasional brilliant image provided a glimpse

of what was to come." They also chart with unusual
thoroughness all of the facets of Lowell's idealistic and mystical
thought. The most important of these concerns the existence of a
transcendent power that permeates the world and accounts for
the divinity that Lowell sensed in all created things. In her poem
"Before the Altar," a lonely and penniless worshipper offers his
life and being as sacrifice to this Power, which Lowell also
celebrated in "The Poet," another early poem. Moved by the
awesome splendours of creation, the poet is urged, she says, to
forsake the ordinary pleasures of life to pursue the ideal
symbolized by the "airy cloudland palaces" of sunset. Such a
person, she says, "spurns life's human friendships to profess
Life's loneliness of dreaming ecstasy."
In addition to the beauty of the poems themselves, Healey and
Ingram also wrote appreciatively of the artistic design of A
Dome of Many-Coloured Glass, which Lowell had based on a
volume by early nineteenth-century British poet John Keats.
A devotee of Keats's work since her teenage years, Lowell
gradually amassed a collection of the author's papers and
manuscripts that she would later mine for a weighty biography.
"In addition to the Keats collection," an essayist for the
Dictionary of Literary Biography explained, "Lowell built up an
extensive literary library—with an emphasis on poetry—which
included autograph manuscripts, letters, and first and other early
editions of English and American authors.
Lowell was a significant figure in the book-collecting world of
the first quarter of the twentieth century." Her collection of
some 12,000 books, letters, and manuscripts was eventually left
to Harvard University following her death. A. Edward Newton,
writing in his book The Amenities of Book-Collecting and

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Kindred Affections, described Lowell as "a poet of rare

distinction, a critic, and America's most distinguished woman
collector. "Amy Lowell was deeply interested in and influenced
by the Imagist movement and she received the Pulitzer Prize for
her collection What's O’clock.

Summary
In this poem one could see a persona who is so enraged that she
prepares a drink that is so colourful and she will also add the
cold scorn of her beloved into it. It means that her beloved is
worth nothing and she adds her beloved is like ice added to a
drink. She continues that this scorn she is drinking is alive and is
like some sort of evil. She states that this drink contains a
darkness which is the scorn. She is drinking away the pain from
the cold scorn she received from her beloved. In this poem one
could assume that the persona must have received some sort of
debilitation from her beloved. And being a female, she is trying
to get away from those dark scorn. Major Themes in this poem
are: drinking, love, women.
Review Questions
Answer in TWO OR THREE sentences
Which work of Lowell won the Pulitzer Prize?
To which literary movement does Lowell belong?

Paragraph questions
Write a note on Amy Lowell as a female poet?
Comment on the pictorial style of Lowell’s poetry?
Significance of the title of the poem “Before the altar”
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What are the major themes of the poem “Vintage”?

Essay question
Write an essay on imagist movement?

FURTHER READING
https://bonesinwhispers.com/2018/04/21/vintage-by-amy-
lowell/#:~:text=Born%20in%201874%20to%20Boston,must%2
0have%20been%20a%20lesbian.
https://www.americanpoems.com/poets/amylowell/
https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/a/american-poets-of-the-
20th-century/the-poets/amy-lowell-18741925

Sappho: To Anactoria in Lydia

About The Author
Sappho was an ancient Greek female poet who wrote lyrical
poetry famous for its intense passion and description of love.
Being born on the Isle of Lesbos she is also referred to as the
first Lesbian poet.
Little is known of her actual life, though she was born around
620BC, and died approximately 50 years later. Unfortunately,
much of her poetry has been lost, although some poems have
been painstakingly pieced together through surviving fragments.
Details of her life are hard to piece together as there are few

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reliable sources. For example, historians are unsure about

whether to take her poetry as reliable autobiographical evidence.

Quick facts about Sappho

Her family appears to belong to an aristocratic family on
Lesbos, a large Greek island. They probably lived in Mytilene,
which then was a significant city on the island. One tradition
states she married a man called Cercylas, who came from the
island of Andros and they had one daughter, called Cleis. In
stature Sappho was said to be short and dark; she was described
by her friend and fellow poet, Alcaeus as ‘violet-haired, pure,
honey-smiling’ It appears that Sappho was an influential figure
in the local community. Her poetry refers to the intrigue of court
life and attended events, such as festivals and military parades.
She appears to have attracted a group of female students who
were interested in the teachings and poetry of Sappho.
Sometimes this has been viewed of as a girl’s finishing school,
with training for young girls before they get married. The
presiding deity of the school was Aphrodite– the Greek goddess
of love and sexual desire.
The sexuality of Sappho
Sappho is sometimes referred to as a lesbian. The word lesbian
is actually derived from her place of birth – Lesbos. However,
there is no hard evidence of her sexuality. Her poems express
great passion for a variety of people – both men and women;
they may have been autobiographical or not. Also, in Greek
culture, there was a greater acceptance of homoeroticism, with
love of the same gender considered a normal practice. It is likely
Sappho’s community of young women was similar to the
intensely all-male societies of Athens and Sparta. Combined
with her intense poetry, it has made Sappho appear to be an

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early figure of lesbian literature. For example, my flesh runs

with soft fire, my eyes lose sight…. My ears hear nothing but
the roar of the wind. All is black. Sweat streams off me,
Trembling seizes me, The colour drains from le like grass in
autumn. I almost die. A philosopher Maximus of Tyre wrote that
the friendships of Sappho were similar to those of Socrates
suggesting Sappho had a circle of like-minded friends brought
together by a love of art, poetry and culture. It has been
suggested, with little authority, that Sappho may have been the
head of some formal academy like a school. However, it is more
likely to be a less formal circle of friends.

Poetry of Sappho
The poetry of Sappho often revolves around themes of love and
passion, and has a clarity and simplicity of language; within her
poems, there is great vividness and directness. The style is often
conversational – giving an impression of immediacy and action.
The poems were also sung to music, meaning they needed to be
lyrical in form. “Come back to me, Gongyla, here tonight, You,
my rose, with your Lydian lyre. There hovers forever around
you delight: A beauty desired. “(From Please by Paul
Roche)Her poetry also involved retellings of famous Greek
classics such as:
“Some an army of horsemen, some an army on foot and some
say a fleet of ships is the loveliest sight on this dark earth; but I
say it is what-ever you desire: and it possible to make this
perfectly clear to all; for the woman who far surpassed all others
in her beauty, Helen, left her husband —the best of all men—
behind and sailed far away to Troy; she did not spare a single
thought for her child nor for her dear parents but [the goddess of
love] led her astray[to desire…][…which]reminds me now of
An auctorial though far away.

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Her poems were written in Aeolic Greek dialect; as this

dialect was quite rare, it explains why her poems became
increasingly lost as fewer people were able to translate them.
The difficulties of the Aeolic Greek metre also mean that there
is considerable variance in English translations. However, even
in the classical period, her fame was well-known. Plato referred
to her as the tenth muse. During the medieval period, her
reputation for sensuality and homoeroticism meant her works
became less well-known, but in the twentieth century there has
been a resurgence of interest in her work. This resurgence was
helped by the discovery in 1896 of many ancient texts in a
rubbish dump at Oxyrhynchus – an ancient site that saw the
rediscovery of many poems and fragments of the works of
Sappho.

Death of Sappho
One legend about the death of Sappho is that she ended her life
by throwing herself off the Leucadian Rock out of love for a
young sailor, called Phaon.
Summary
‘The Anactoria Poem’ by Sappho is a love poem with
philosophy at its heart in which Sappho considers what is
beautiful and what is meaningful. In the stanzas of this piece,
Sappho, or at least the Speaker she’s channelling for this poem,
addresses the nature of beauty and love. She knows that what
she loves is that which her lover, Anactoria loves. She thinks
these same things are the most beautiful and most worth
admiring. Sappho uses the example of Helen leaving her family,
friends, and home as proof. Anactoria is Sappho's lover, and the
person to whom the poem is addressed--
And the question in it is, appropriate for a lyric poem, only, "the

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most beautiful of / sights the dark earth offers." What is it? Well,
it depends on who you are, for beauty, for Sappho, is a matter of
perspective. Whatever one finds the most beautiful is whatever
you love; beauty is a function of love. Sappho then goes on to
show this to be true using the example of Helen of Troy. Though
her physical beauty was allegedly the greatest, Helen herself did
not think so, and left her life in order to cavort with Paris, to
wander with longing.

Sappho reveals her taste in beauty at the end of the poem, saying
that what she loves best is this woman, that Sappho would rather
see Helen's glittering face than all of the power in the world.
This is a philosophical poem that turns into a love poem.

Structure and Form

‘The Anactoria Poem’ by Sappho is a five-stanza poem that is
separated into sets of four lines, known as Quatrains or,
especially in this case, Sapphic stanzas. This refers to a stanza
that is made up of four lines, the first three of which contain
eleven syllables and the last which contains five syllables.

Review Questions
Answer in two or three sentences

 Where does poet Sappho’s fame lie?

 Why Sappho is referred to as a lesbian poet?

 How is Sappho’s poetry referred to?

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Paragraph questions

 Is there any relationship between beauty and love?

 Describe the structure of the poem?

 Write a short note on the admiring characteristics of

Sappho’s poetry?
Essay question

 What is the significance of using the example of Helen

in the poem?
FURTHER READING
https://poets.org › poem › anactoria-poem-0
https://poemanalysis.com › Sappho
https://www.poemhunter.com › Poems

Inez Hernandez Avila: To Other Women Who

Were Ugly Once
About The Author
Inés Hernández-Ávila is professor of Native American Studies
at University of California at Davis and one of six co-founders
of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association. She
is a poet, visual artist, and cultural worker. Inés Hernández-
Ávila has five poems published in Infinite Divisions: An
Anthology of Chicana Literature.

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1. “To Other Women Who Were Ugly Once.”

Summary
The poem speaks for all of us in that we tend to see ourselves
through the lens of “others” and in particular, in the powerful
images of the magazines that seem to hold such power in their
spaces. This is especially true in our youth while we’re
discovering who we are and what others think of us. The poem
begins:
Do you remember how we used to panic?
When Cosmo, Vogue and Mademoiselle
Ladies would Glamour us out of
Existence
So ultra-bright
Would be their smile
So lovely their complexion
But, in the end, Inés writes about how she came to terms with
the situation:
Y al caboahora se
Que se vale
Preferir natural
Luz to neon.

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Review Questions
Do you agree to the statement, The poem speaks for all of us in
that we tend to see ourselves through the lens of “others” and in
particular, in the powerful images of the magazines that seem to
hold such power?
Paragraph question

 Comment on the title?

 Does this poem criticize the element of personal

confidence?

 Does the poem capture the main theme of discovering

one’s own self?
Essay question

 Is there any element of double-sided oppression Implicit

in the poem?
FURTHER READING
https://yellowpapayasite.wordpress.com › 2017/12/25
https://sites.williams.edu › engl113-f18 › dominguez › t...
https://prezi.com › to-other-women-...

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Judith Wright: Eve to Her Daughters

About The Author
Judith Wright is a commendable poet and part of her
achievement is her ability to express ideas and personal
reactions that are effectively communicated to the responder.
Wright expresses concern for our society and conveys this
through her poem's "Eve to her daughters”. Wright uses a
variety of techniques to appeal to the responder.
Summary
The poem "Eve to her daughters" is an imaginative account
grounded in the biblical story of Adam and Eve' and it still
retains its relevance for twentieth century people. Wright
dramatizes the argument that the preoccupation with technology
and the quest for knowledge and scientific proof is dangerous
for human kind and has caused people to forget their traditional
relationship with God. Also, from a feminist reading the poem
ultimately acknowledges that females are submissive. The poem
sees Eve talking to her daughters about their expulsion from the
Garden of Eden. The poem opens very formally "It was not I" to
show that Eve is submissive to her husband. "Where Adam
went, I fairly contented to go" also reinforces this idea. The
formal tone shifts in the next stanza to accommodate the
humorous mood presented. In the line "He had discovered a
flaw in himself" satirises Adam's realisation that he is not
perfect. What Wright addresses here is implicit throughout the
whole poem. The message conveyed is that human life is
imperfect' and the humorous line "It was hard to compete with
Heaven" shows that it's impossible to equal God. In the third
stanza, Eve imitates Adam's voice and in a few lines, she lists
his argument. In a public retrospective voice "The earth must be
made a new Eden with central heating...." she lists the

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achievements of technological progress. Men have generally

taken the credit for.
The conclusion of the poem is in a sarcastic tone as a final
message to Eve’s daughters that everybody has faults and they
always work out. She suggests that Adam is too stubborn to
accept this and through this he has turned himself into a
shapeless enigma that doesn’t exist.
Review Questions
Answer in two or three sentences
 Is there any implication of technological achievements in
the poem?
 Is there any suggestion that no one is perfect?
 What is the idea of a submissive woman according to the
poem?
Paragraph questions
 What is the idea of women expressed in the poem?
 Rereading the poem how would you evaluate that human
life is imperfect?
 What is the biblical context of the poem?
Essay question
 Does the poem repeat the idea of women hood?
FURTHER READING
https://genius.com › Judith-wright-eve-to-her-daughters...
https://nebo-lit.com › poetry › Wright › eve-to-her-dau...
https://www.enotes.com › homework-help › what-is-the-...

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MODULE 3: FICTION
Kate Chopin: The Awakening

About The Author

Kate Chopin was born Catherine O'Flaherty in St. Louis on
February 8, 1850. Her mother, Eliza Farris, came from an old
French family that lived outside of St. Louis. Her father,
Thomas, was a highly successful Irish-born businessman; he
died when Kate was five years old. Chopin grew up in a
household dominated by women: her mother, great-
grandmother, and the female slaves her mother owned, who took
care of the children. Young Chopin spent a lot of time in the
attic reading such masters as Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and
the Bronte’s. Her great-grandmother taught her to speak French
and play piano, and related stories about her great-great-
grandmother, a woman who ran her own business, was separated
from her husband, and had children while unmarried. This
woman great example for young Katie of a woman's strength,
potential for independence, and the real workings of life's
passions.
Like the rest of her family, Chopin grew up strongly pro-
Confederate; a sentiment enhanced by her beloved half-brother's
death in the Civil War. In fact, 13-year-old Chopin was arrested
when she tore a Union flag from her family's porch that had
been hung there by the triumphant Union troops. She became
known as St. Louis's "Littlest Rebel" — a trait that marked
Chopin's behaviour as an adult, when she attended her own
interests more closely than society's arbitrary and sexist dictates.
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After finishing her education at Academy of the Sacred Heart,

Chopin entered St. Louis society, where she met Oscar Chopin,
a French-born cotton factor (the middleman between cotton
grower and buyer). She married Oscar in June 1870, and they
moved to New Orleans. Between 1871 and 1879, she had six
children. Like Edna and Léonce Pontellier, the Chopin’s
vacationed during summers on Grand Isle, to avoid the cholera
outbreaks in the city of New Orleans. Also, like Edna, Chopin
took long walks alone in New Orleans, often while smoking
cigarettes, much to the astonishment of passers-by.
When Oscar's cotton brokerage business failed due to drought
and his mismanagement, they moved to the small French village
of Coulterville, Louisiana where Oscar had family and a small
amount of land. Chopin was distinguished in this tiny town by
her habit of riding horses astride rather than side-saddle,
dressing too fashionably for her surroundings, and smoking
cigarettes — all of which were considered unladylike. Many of
the locals found their way into her later stories.
Oscar ran a general store in Coulterville until he died in 1882 of
malaria. Upon his death, which left his family in great debt,
Chopin ran the store and their small plantation, a highly unusual
move for widows at the time. Not until 1884 did Chopin take the
usual course for widows, when she and her children moved back
to St. Louis to live with her mother. Before she left Coulterville,
Chopin had an affair with a local married man who is said to be
the prototype for Alcée Arobin in The Awakening.
Literary Writing
Chopin's first short story was published in 1889; she began her
first novel, At Fault, that year as well. Chopin was assiduous
about submitting manuscripts and cultivating relationships with

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influential editors. Her stories appeared in prestigious magazines

such as Vogue and Atlantic Monthly, and two collections of her
short stories were published in book form, as Bayou Folk (1894)
and A Night in Acadie (1897). Both of those books were well
received, although regarded by many reviewers and critics
primarily as "regionalist" work, meaning it had little literary
value beyond the portrait it presented of the Louisiana/Missouri
region.
Her most famous work, The Awakening, appeared in 1899. As in
much of Chopin's writing, this novel is concerned with issues of
identity and morality. Unlike the rest of her work, it created a
tremendous controversy. While many reviewers deemed it a
worthy novel, an equal and more vocal number condemned it,
not simply for Edna's behaviour, but for her lack of remorse
about her behaviour and Chopin's refusal to judge Edna either
way.
A well-regarded author at the time of her death, despite the
controversy surrounding The Awakening, Chopin's work fell into
obscurity for many years as regional literature fell out of literary
favour. Chopin's work did not come to the attention of the
established literary world until 1969, after almost 70 years of
obscurity, with the publication of Per Seyersted's critical
biography and his edition of her complete works.
The 1960s feminist movement in America had a great deal to do
with her new-found fame as well; that movement brought to
attention the work of women who had been excluded from the
literary canon by its male creators. Today, her work is part of
the canon of American literature.

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Summary
The Awakening explores one woman's desire to find and live
fully within her true self. Her devotion to that purpose causes
friction with her friends and family, and also conflicts with the
dominant values of her time. Edna Pontellier's story takes place
in 1890s Louisiana, within the upper-class Creole society. Edna,
her husband Léonce, and their two children are vacationing for
the summer on Grand Isle, an island just off the Louisiana shore
near New Orleans. They are staying at a pension, a sort of
boarding house where each family has their own cottage but eat
together in a main dining hall. Also staying at the pension is the
Ratignolle family; Madame Ratignolle is a close friend of
Edna's, although their philosophies and attitudes toward child
rearing differ fundamentally. Madame Ratignolle is the epitome
of a "mother-woman,"gladly sacrificing a distinct personal
identity to devote her entire being to the care of her children,
husband, and household. In contrast to Madame Ratignolle's
character is Mademoiselle Reisz, a brilliant pianist also
vacationing on Grand Isle. Although Mademoiselle Reisz
offends almost everyone with her brutal assessments of others,
she likes Edna, and they become friends. Mademoiselle Reisz's
piano performance stirs Edna deeply, awakening her capacity
for passion and engendering the process of personal discovery
that Edna undertakes — almost accidentally — that summer.
Another Grand Isle vacationer is the young and charming Robert
Lebrun. Robert devotes himself each summer season to a
different woman, usually married, in a sort of mock romance
that no one takes seriously. This summer, Edna is the object of
his attentions. As Edna begins the process of identifying her true
self, the self that exists apart from the identity she maintains as a
wife and mother, Robert unknowingly encourages her by
indulging her emerging sensuality. Unexpectedly, Robert and
Edna become intensely infatuated with each other by summer's
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end. The sudden seriousness of his romantic feelings for her

compels him to follow through on his oft-stated intention to go
to Mexico to seek his fortune. Edna is distraught at his
departure, remaining obsessed with him long after she and her
family have returned to New Orleans. As a result of her
continuing process of self-discovery, she becomes almost
capricious in meeting her desires and needs, no longer putting
appearances first. Always interested in art, she begins spending
more time painting and sketching portraits than on household
and social duties. Léonce is shocked by Edna's refusal to obey
social conventions. He consults Dr. Mandelet, an old family
friend, who advises Léonce to leave Edna alone and allow her to
get this odd behaviour out of her system. Edna continues her
friendships with Mademoiselle Reisz and the pregnant Madame
Ratignolle. Mademoiselle Reisz receives letters from Robert,
which she allows Edna to read. Meanwhile, as a result of her
awakening sexuality Edna has an affair with Alcée Arobin, a
notorious womanizer. Her heart remains with Robert, however,
and she is delighted to learn that he is soon returning to New
Orleans. She has grown ever more distant from Léonce, and also
become a much better artist, selling some of her work through
her art teacher. These sales provide her a small income, so while
Léonce and the children are out of town, she decides to move
out of the mansion they share and into a tiny rental house
nearby, called the "pigeon house" for its small size. Much to her
distress, she encounters Robert accidentally, when he comes to
visit Mademoiselle Reisz while Edna happens to be there. She is
hurt that he did not seek her out as soon as he returned. Over the
next weeks he tries to maintain emotional and physical distance
from Edna because she is a married woman, but she ultimately
forces the issue by kissing him, and he confesses his love to her.
Edna tries to express to Robert that she is utterly indifferent to
the social prohibitions that forbid their love; she feels herself to

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be an independent woman. Before she can explain herself,

however, she is called away to attend Madame Ratignolle's
labour and delivery, at the end of which Madame Ratignolle
asks Edna to consider the effect of her adulterous actions on her
children. Edna is greatly disturbed to realize that her little boys
will be deeply hurt if she leaves Léonce for another man. To this
point, she had considered only her own desires. When she
returns to the pigeon house, Robert is gone, having left a
goodbye note. Crushed, she decides to kill herself, realizing that
she cannot return to her former life with Léonce but is also
unwilling to hurt her children personally or socially with the
stigma of divorce or open adultery. The next morning, she
travels alone to Grand Isle, announces that she is going
swimming, and drowns herself.

Themes:

 Discovery of the self

 Emancipation of women

 Retaliating against social norms

Review Questions
Answer in two or three sentences

 What are the major concerns of the novel “The

Awakening “?

 How did women-writers benefit from the feminist

movement in America?

 When and where did the story take place?

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Paragraph questions

 Distinguish the 3 female characters who are in the grand

isles?

 Character sketch of Edna Pontellier?

 Evaluate the title and main theme of the novel?

Essay question

 Can you evaluate this novel as a women’s awakening?

FURTHER READING
https://www.researchgate.net › publication › 281561163_...
https://westernhs.bcps.org › Servers › Image › Gr...
https://blog.bham.ac.uk › clic-dickens › 2018/06/29 › d...

Clarice Lispector: Preciousness

About The Author
Clarice Lispector(December 10, 1920 – December 9, 1977) was
a Ukrainian born Brazilian novelist and short story writer
acclaimed internationally for her innovative novels and short
stories. Born to a Jewish family in Podolia in Western Ukraine,
as an infant she moved to Brazil with her family, amidst the
disasters engulfing her native land following the First World
War. She grew up in Recife, the capital of the north eastern state
of Pernambuco, where her mother died when she was nine. The
family moved to Rio de Janeiro when she was in her teens.

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While in law school in Rio, she began publishing her first

journalistic work and short stories, catapulting to fame at the age
of 23 with the publication of her first novel, Near to the Wild
Heart (Perto do CoraçãoSelvagem), written as an interior
monologue in a style and language that was considered
revolutionary in Brazil. She left Brazil in 1944, following her
marriage to a Brazilian diplomat, and spent the next decade and
a half in Europe and the United States. After returning to Rio de
Janeiro in 1959, she began producing her most famous works,
including the stories of Family Ties (Laços de Família), the
great mystic novel The Passion According to G.H. (A Paixão
Segundo G.H.), and what is arguably her masterpiece, Água
Viva. Injured in an accident in 1966, she spent the last decade of
her life in frequent pain, steadily writing and publishing novels
and stories until her premature death in 1977. She has been the
subject of numerous books, and references to her and her work
are common in Brazilian literature and music. Several of her
works have been turned into films. In 2009, the American writer
Benjamin Moser published Why This World: A Biography of
Clarice Lispector. Since that publication, her works have been
the object of an extensive project of retranslation, published by
New Directions Publishing and Penguin Modern Classics, the
first Brazilian to enter that prestigious series. Moser, who is also
the editor of her anthology The Complete Stories (2015),
describes Lispector as the most important Jewish writer in the
world since Kafka.

Summary
Clarice Lispector’s short story “Preciousness” identifies the
challenges women face in social environments. Overall, the
fifteen-year-old girl is not confident, but curious about her
sexuality and what it really means. One part that is found
interesting was when the story talked about the bus. The girl
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flagged down the bus with her arm and was satisfied that the bus
slowed down. She almost felt in control with her body, even
though she was insecure. “Those men who were no longer just
boys. But she was also afraid of boys, and afraid of the youngest
ones too. Afraid they would “say something to her,” would look
her up and down.” She didn’t want her sexuality to be the only
reason why boys looked at her or talked to her. However, she
feels independent, empowered, and confident in the classroom
because that is “where she was treated like a boy.” In the
classroom, she could show how smart she is and not feel judged
by her peers. Outside the classroom, she questioned if people
looked at her only looked at her in a sexual way because she is
female. Women are constantly expected to look a certain way
because of “societal norms” and what media portrays as truly
beautiful. Especially when women wear any type of clothing
that may be tight or show some skin, they have to be careful of
their surroundings. While reading this short story, one can
understand why the girl is insecure and questioning her
sexuality. The story Preciousness depicts gender discrimination.
What difference does it means to be a girl and a boy? Yes of
course this story in particular and the society in general proves
this question to be right. As a fact we all know that all are born
from the mother’s womb. And we all die one day or the other
and vanish to a place unknown. But still in the time gap of this
worldly life, we categorize human beings as male and female.
Yes, if course there are two genders male and female besides the
others. But what’s it with having discriminations in the name of
gender. The fact is that woman and man are part of the society
and each have their own roles to play in building up the society.
The only fact is that we all are equals, though there are
biological difference.

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Review Questions
Answer in two or three sentences

 Why did the girl feel empowered in the classroom?

 Does this story criticize the attitude of a female towards

herself?

 What are women constantly expected off?

Paragraph questions

 Does this story implicitly speak anything about gender

discrimination?

 Do you think women face challenges in social

environments?
Essay question

 Do you think this short story is a comment on the

feelings of a teenage girl?
FURTHER READING
http://www.laits.utexas.edu › doherty › lispecter
https://kaylasjournal13.wordpress.com › 2019/02/07 › f...
https://womenslit3298.blogspot.com › 2019/02 › febru...

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Alice Walker: The Flowers

About The Author
Alice Malsenior Tallulah-Kate Walker (born February 9, 1944)
is a well-known American novelist, short story writer, poet, and
social activist. She became the first African-American woman to
win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, for her novel The Color
Purple in 1982. Following this great achievement, she published
a collection of essays, In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens, in
1983, and in 1984 released a collection of poems, Horses Make
a Landscape Look More Beautiful. She has also published
the Temple of My Familiar (1989) and Possessing the Secret of
Joy (1992), along with children's books and non-fiction work.
Over the span of her career, Walker has published seventeen
novels and short story collections, twelve non-fiction works, and
collections of essays and poetry.

Summary of 'The Flowers'

Can you remember the moment you stopped being a child? It's
pretty tough pinning down an exact time. This makes literature a
great venue to explore such an idea. In Alice Walker's short
story 'The Flowers,' the author tells the story of a 10-year-old
girl named Myop growing up in a day. The story begins with the
child happily exploring a forest. But when she literally stumbles
over the body of a dead man, her life will never be the same.
The story takes place outdoors on a farm during summer. The
reader picks this up by the narrator mentioning the main
character, Myop, passing corn, cotton, peanuts, and squash.
Myop's family lives and works on a farm by mention of their
'sharecropper's cabin.' This detail also helps create a sense of the

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timeframe as share cropping came about after the American

Civil War during the Jim Crow law era from the mid-1860s to
1960s. Sharecroppers were poor, typically black folks who
worked and lived on an owner's land in exchange for a portion
of the crops they harvested. This is compounded by the dead
man Myop discovers, which further supports this time period.
With the discovery of the noose nearby and the fact that all his
teeth had been broken suggests he had been lynched, an act
motivated by rampant racism.

Theme in 'The Flowers'

The setting is just one feature of 'The Flowers' that conveys its
central idea or theme. This coming-of-age story expresses the
theme of loss of innocence. The story begins much as childhood
begins, merrily without a care in the world. The narrator defines
the time in the first sentence as, 'the days had never been as
beautiful as these.' Myop plays with the chickens and 'felt light
and good in the warm sun.' She feels the excitement and
exuberance of youth. She collects flowers and even goes her
own way along the stream. Then things change. She literally
gets snagged by a dead man's body. She steps on his decaying
face, lodging her foot in it. As if this were not gruesome enough,
she notices his teeth have all been broken, and his head is
separated from his body. Nearby, she finds a noose, most
probably the tool used to kill the man.
Myop is no longer frolicking gaily in fields. She has been
stopped dead by the violence of this man's death. She lays down
her flowers near the man, setting aside her fun. The last line,
'And the summer was over,' completely ends her innocence.
Summer and her unmarred childhood have come to an end. Now
a harsher, more aware experience will take its place for Myop.

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Themes:
 Innocence to realization
 Worldly truths
 Life experiences
Review Questions
Answer in two or three sentences
 Who is the protagonist of the story?
 What is the setting of the story?
 Describe Myop’s family?
Paragraph questions
 What is the implication of the dead man?
 Can flowers be taken as a metaphor, how?
 Does the author mean anything about racial
discrimination in the story?
 Essay question
 Taking flowers as the main image of the story, can this be
taken as a story of maturity from innocence to reality?
FURTHER READING
https://graduateway.com/the-flower/
https://www.ipl.org/essay/The-Flowers-By-Alice-Walker-
Analysis-FKF48NFJ486
https://www.studocu.com/in/document/aligarh-muslim-
university/american-literature/the-flowers-by-alice-
walker/20784696

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MODULE 4: DRAMA AND FILM

Thozhil Kendrathilekku

The play was written and enacted by the very first

women’s collective in Malayalam theatre. It was a historical
play written and performed by a group of Nambothiri women
more than half a century ago as a part of the struggles for their
own emancipation was brought back to life again in 2013. The
new version was directed by Geethu Joseph and was staged in
Thrissur. M. G. Sasi, director of the documentary, said the
theme of the play had contemporary relevance. ‘Thozhil
Kendrathilekku’ triggered social reform in the Namboodiri
community in the 1940s.
At a meeting of Antharjana Samajam, the women’s wing
of the Yogakshema Sabha, held in 1944, expressed a strong
desire to work and stand on their own feet. In 1947, E.M.S.
Namboodiripad inaugurated a women’s collective, Thozhil
Kendram, at Lakkidi Cherumangalathu Mana. The collective
had 16 members. The Kendram gave basic education to
members along with training in stitching, weaving and cooking.
‘Thozhil Kendrathilekku’, one of the first feminist plays in
Malayalam, was a reaction of oppressed women in the
Namboodiri community against gender inequalities.
The script was based on the life of Kavunkara Bhargavi,
who was rescued by activists of Antharjana Samajam when she
was forced to marry against her wish. Bhargavi left her marital
home to reach Thozhil kendram”( Work- Place- literally

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speaking) in 1948 at Cheramangalathu Mana in Lakkidi, which

was a sort of free commune of women who gathered seeking
the freedom to eke out a living for themselves finding a work.
The documentary does not depict the play and its historical
context directly, but borrows from other sources to drive home
its message. Scenes from Aristophanes’ play ‘Lysistrata’, a
comic account of a woman’s mission to end the Peloponnesian
War, have been included. ‘Lysistrata’ persuades the women of
Greece to deprive their husbands and lovers of sexual privileges
as a means of forcing them to negotiate peace. The strategy,
however, triggers a battle between the sexes.
Scenes from Ibsen’s ‘A Doll’s House’ also have been included.
Nora, its heroine, is expected to look beautiful, look after her
home and satisfy her husband’s needs. But she does not want to
be chained to the traditional roles women are expected to don.
Ibsen depicts her attempts to articulate her own desires and
needs. The documentary also re-creates episodes from
Kuriyedathu Thathri’s life. History records Thathri as a bold,
beautiful, scholarly and fun-loving Namboodiri woman who
questioned the ills in her community.
This documentary very clearly portrays the rights of women and
those discriminations that women face due to the cause of being
a female. Women were in general and are in particular are
forbidden from doing many things. The only reason is that she is
a woman. This documentary very beautifully criticizes all
women’s right of being the part of the working-class
community. Women have always been chained inside the four
walls of her home. This documentary puts lights on how women
can be empowered. Our history and culture has a list of strong
hold women. Though many of them have crossed the boundary
of life their footsteps still remain in the soil for us to remind
ourselves. In the present as time has captured our lives it is the
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right time and space to provide the way for women’s

empowerment.

Review questions
Paragraph Questions
Recalling the history of India, do you think women are still one
among the categories of the downtrodden?
How do you think can women be considered one of the
breadwinners of her family, if she is given opportunity?
How do you think the status of women in the course of time, has
changed by reading this documentary?
Essay questions
Write a note on Thozhil Kendrathilekku?
Reading Thozhil Kendrathilekku do you think women’s
empowerment is linked with finding a means of living for
herself?

FURTHER READING
https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/kozhikode/back-on-
stage-67-years-later/article6943738.ece
http://keralatheatre.blogspot.com/2013/10/thozhilkendrathil
ekku-to-be-staged-
at.html#:~:text=The%20play%20narrates%20the%20life,li
ving%20for%20themselves%20by%20finding

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At Five in The Afternoon

Samira Makhmalbaf’s “At Five in the Afternoon” takes
the viewer on a harsh, at times poetic journey into the heart of
Afghanistan today, with a picture serving as both an
impassioned demand for women’s rights and a searing portrayal
of a country left in ruins after its liberation from the cruel
Taliban regime. It tells the story of an ambitious young woman
trying to gain an education in Afghanistan after the defeat of the
Taliban. The title comes from a Federico García Lorca poem
which is a tale of flourishing against the odds. The film
premiered In Competition at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival and
was awarded the Jury Prize and the Prize of the Ecumenical
Jury. ‘At Five in the Afternoon’ was the first film to be shot in
Kabul after the NATO invasion. It was an international co-
production between the Iranian company Makhmalbaf
Productions and the French companies.
Plot
Nogreh is a young woman living in a war-torn Kabul
with her father, sister-in-law and her sister-in-law's baby. She
begins covertly attending an all-girls school against her
conservative father's wishes. Nogreh is one of the few girls at
the school who dreams of one day becoming president. While
searching for water one day after school she comes across
several truckloads of refugees returning from Pakistan and helps
them resettle in the ruins, she calls home. However, the number
of refugees overwhelms the shelter where her family have been
living and they are eventually forced out by several other
families. They manage to find shelter in an abandoned airplane
but this, too, is eventually overcrowded by refugees.

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Nogreh meets a refugee among the ruins who is a

poet. She asks him if he knows whether the president of
Pakistan is a man or a woman and he, like everyone else, does
not know. However, after befriending Nogreh and learning of
her ambitions to be president, he helps procure political
speeches and goes with her to a photographer to get photos of
her that she can use to campaign.
Nogreh's father learns from one of the refugees that his
son has died. Unwilling to tell his daughter-in-law, he moves the
family further into the desert where his grandson dies of
starvation and malnourishment.
In the desert they meet an old man who is waiting by his
donkey, who is dying of hunger and thirst. The man had been
trying to get to the city to speak on behalf of Osama Bin Laden
to try to prevent him from being given to the Americans.
Nogreh's father informs him he is too late and that the
Americans have already invaded. After Nogreh's father buries
his grandson, the family continues on, to the desert.

Review Questions
Essay questions
Do you think women’s freedom is strongly linked with her
education?
Write an essay on the plight of the refugees as described?
FURTHER READING
http://keralatheatre.blogspot.com/2013/10/thozhilkendrathilekku
-to-be-staged-at.html
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https://gklokam.blogspot.com/2016/06/who-enacted-drama-
thozhilkendrathilekku.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_Five_in_the_Afternoon
https://www.screendaily.com/at-five-in-the-afternoon-panj-e-
asr/4013646.article

Mustang
Mustang is a 2015 Turkish-language film co-written and
directed by Deniz Gamze Erguven in her feature debut. Set in a
remote Turkish village, Mustang depicts the lives of five young
orphaned sisters and the challenges they face growing up as girls
in a conservative society. The event that triggers the family
backlash against the five sisters at the beginning of the film is
based on Erguven's personal life. Mustang is an international co-
production of France, Germany and Turkey.
It premiered at the Directors’ Fortnight section of the 2015
Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Europa Cinemas Label
Award. Mustang was selected as France’s submission, and was
nominated for, the Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th
Academy Awards. It received nine nominations at the 41st Cesar
Awards, and won four, for First Feature Film, Original
Screenplay, Original Music. Mustang has received widespread
critical praise.

Plot
The film starts with Lale, the youngest of the five sisters
and the protagonist, bidding an emotional farewell at school to
her female teacher, who is moving to Istanbul. The sisters decide

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to walk home instead of taking a van, to enjoy the sunny day.

Along the way, they play in the water at the beach with their
classmates. For one game, they sit on boys' shoulders and try to
knock each other off. When they reach home, their grandmother
scolds and hits them for their having this kind of bodily contact
with boys and thus "pleasuring themselves" with them. Their
uncle Erol is equally furious. From then on, the girls are
forbidden from leaving the house, even for school.
The sisters feel stifled in their home as their grandmother tries
to make them suitable for marriage. When in public they must
now dress in drab, conservative clothing. Instead of attending
school, they must stay home, where they are taught how to cook,
clean and sew by their female relatives. Even so, the oldest
sister, Sonay, sneaks out occasionally to meet her lover, and
Lale looks for various ways to escape.
Lale, who loves football, is forbidden from attending
Trabzonspor matches. She resolves to go to a match from
which men have been banned due to hooliganism. A friend tells
her that the girls in the village are going together on a bus. The
sisters, who are happy for an opportunity to leave the house,
sneak out of the house with Lale. When they miss the bus, they
hitch a ride with a passing truck driver, Yasin, who helps them
catch up to it. They’re ecstatic in the exuberant atmosphere of
the all-female crowd cheering for their team. Back home, their
aunt catches a glimpse of them at the match on TV, just as their
uncle and other village men are about to tune in. To prevent the
men from finding out, she cuts the house's, and then the whole
village's, electricity.
When the girls return, their grandmother decides to start
marrying the sisters off. They’re taken to town, ostensibly "to
get lemonade", which is actually an opportunity to show them
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off to potential suitors. Soon enough, a suitor and his family

arrive to meet them. Sonay vows to only marry her lover and
refuses to meet the prospective suitor and his family. Selma is
sent instead and becomes engaged. Sonay gets engaged a short
while later to her lover. At the two sisters' joint wedding, Sonay
is clearly happy while Selma is not. On the night of her
wedding, Selma's in-laws come to view the bed sheets in a
traditional ritual to establish that Selma was a virgin before her
wedding night. Because there is no blood on the sheet, her in-
laws take her to a physician to have her virginity tested.
Next in line for marriage is Ece. It’s revealed that her uncle is
sexually abusing her at night. In Lale’s words, she starts acting
“dangerously.” When the three remaining girls stop with their
uncle near a bank, Ece allows a boy to have sexual contact with
her in their car. She makes jokes at the lunch table, inciting loud
laughs from her sisters, and is told to go to her room, where she
shoots herself and dies. The surviving sisters and their family
attend the funeral.
Now it is just the two youngest sisters, Nur and Lale, at home.
Lale continues sneaking out. On one impulsive attempt to walk
to Istanbul alone she is encountered by Yasin, the truck driver,
who is kind to her. At Lale's request, he later teaches her how to
drive. When she is caught on the way back into her house, the
house is again reinforced to try to make it impossible for them to
leave.
It becomes evident that the uncle starts abusing Nur and that
their grandmother knows about it. She says that now it is time
for her to be married off. Though she is young, she is found a
suitor and engaged to be married. On the night of Nur's
wedding, Lale convinces her to resist, and the girls bar
themselves inside the house while the whole wedding party is

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outside, much to the embarrassment of their family. As the

wedding party disperses, their uncle violently tries to get inside.
Lale finds the phone hidden in a cupboard and plugs it in to call
Yasin for help. The girls gather up money and a few supplies,
grab the uncle's car keys, and sneak out of the house. They
manage to escape in the car, crashing it close to their house.
They hide and wait for Yasin, who picks them up and takes
them to the local bus station. The girls take the bus to Istanbul,
where they find their former teacher, who greets them warmly.

Review Questions
Paragraph Questions
How does marriage play a vital role in a woman’s life?
Make a comparison between the sisters in the film?
Has the self of women herself changed in the course of time?

Essay Questions
Do you think the section of women are still sexually abused in
the present scenario?
On the grounds of education, how can women be empowered?
FURTHER READING
https://www.filmjabber.com/movie-synopsis/mustang.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/20/movies/review-in-
mustang-turkish-sisters-and-traditions-clash.html

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