29/09/20

HISTORY OF FEMINIST LITERARY CRITICISM

PROTOFEMINISM: THE PREQUEL

Protofeminism articulate feminist ideas before they were articulated the right way. They are
pioneers. Some of them, for the mentality of the time feel inferior although they are considered
protofeminists.

Protofeminism is not properly theorized, but based on intuitions about men and women. Mary
Wollstonecraft is the main figure in the late XVIII c. with her book “Vindication of Rights of
Woman” (1792). First book that opens the door to theorization.

 1st wave: suffragists. Vote for women.

 2nd wave (1960s). Social turmoil looking for the equality of minorities, women among
them.
 3rd wave (1990s). Start talking about feminisms in plural (different versions of feminism).
 4th wave (2000s). Online feminism, technologies and their impact on the construction of
gender.

1. MEDIEVAL FEMINIST CRITICISM

Problematic name: there was not feminism at the time, it was a patriarchal and antifeminist time.
Women as inferior was taken for granted at the time, which was supported by the Bible
(encouraged women silence) and writings of the time (who also took women as inferior for
granted). Women at this time accepted their inferiority and their lack of formal education.

Biologism: the confusion of nature and culture. Women are intellectually inferior, not because of
nature because they didn’t have access to formal education, then only education they had access
to was in the vernacular. Desire to have rights, but the mentality of that time didn’t permit it.

Women themselves couldn’t be feminists themselves as a result of the society.

“The Defense of Poetry” is the beginning of literary criticism. (16 th century). We can set literary
criticism as a school of thoughts before this time.

There is no feminism nor literary criticism. Hence, Medieval Feminist Criticism is an anacronym.
For that reason t is easier to talk about Protofeminism instead.

The Wife of Bath

 Chaucer: Canterbury Tales (1390-5)

 Jankin’s Book of Wicked Wives (mix of not only biblical stories but also about medieval
stories – TEXTUAL DIMENSION: there is always a textual level.)
o Solomon
 o Ovid
o Tertullian and Saint Jerome
o Trotula and Heloise
 Other examples
o Proserpina (Merchant’s Tale)
o Griselda (Clerk’s Tale)
o Criseyde (Troius and Criseyde)

Didn’t accomplish all stereotypes women from the time should accomplish (married several times,
different behavior, sexually open, haunted by her fifth husband who read her an anthology of
“horrible wives”, the level of violence is very high. She broke the book and punched it in her
husband’s head in front of a lot of people (very rebellious action, she was not subservient to her
husband). She becomes a spokesperson for women in order to rebel. Big criticism: there is an
anthology for wicked wives that becomes downgrading for women in general, she destroys
something that was something related to that canon of women at the time.

There was a satirical intention in the presentation of the character, not real feminist purpose
behind the creation of the character. Chaucer intended to present a nightmarish wife, he was not
feminist at all. Yet the final character is feminist and rebellious, with a potent reaction to a
antifeminist tradition.

Christine de Pizan

 Roman de la Rose (JEAN DE MEUN-GUILLAUME DE LLORIS)

 Letter of the God of Love (1399): complaint to Cupid that women receive the impact of
what men write. When women do not write they receive the negative impact of what men
write. She was advanced at the time, women need education in order not to be victims of
men’s writing,
 The Book of the City of Ladies: very modern for the time.
o Matheolus -“Men become miserable when they get married”, makes all women
evil like Eve
o Boccaccio

Critique to the Roman de la Rose. The representation of the rose is women as ornamentation,
women as objectified. The husband demonizes women, the central idea is that women are
demonized and hated, similar to the figure of Eve.

Connection to the House of Wife. She reacts to the violence of the demonization of women by
men’s writings.

Christine de Pizan creates “a city of ladies at a textual level and using as a moral Boccaccio. Since
they don’t have women models to create, male stories become a model of women’s stories. She
creates a genealogy of women (very modern, A Room of One’s Own tries to create the same
thing). Women are lost in the canon because they cannot find models. She offers an alternative
model (most women criticize but don’t offer an alternative).

Margery Kempe and Julian of Norwich

Margery Kempe wrote the first autobiography in English and yet, she didn’t write it herself
because she was uneducated. She wanted to have her story told so she looked for a scribe to write
it. Women’s text were always manipulated by men at that time, they went through a “filter”.

Julian of Norwich was a nun, and wrote “Revelations of Divine Love”, she considered himself
wicked and intellectually inferior yet she proposed an imagine of God that was androgynous (Jesus
The Mother), gave him a maternal direction. She revised Saint Agustin (men had the intellect,
women the body): women had the body but also access to the intellect. Played with the
vulnerability of being a woman, but also was rebellious.

2. RENAISSANCE & 17TH CENTURY

Elizabeth I broke the expectations of the country by being a woman that was reigning. In order to
be accepted as a Ruler, she played with androgyny. She needed to justify she was a woman “that
had the heart and the stomach of a king”, example of the paradox in many women at the time.
They need to masculinize themselves somehow.

Mary I was the first queen reigning.

We had women in power representing the role of a man in power, but yet it is a woman. John
Knotts considered women rulers as “monstrous reginants”.

The Inheritance of Eve: general perception of women as being connected with Eve, and the
negative view of rebellious women in the Bible. Women try to follow their own desire and get
punished because of that.

 DONNE: ‘First Anniversarie: An Anatomy of the World’ (1611):

o ‘One woman at one blow, then kill’d us all,/And singly, one by one, they kill us
now’ – women become a threat when they are free, marry becomes the
instrument to keep women under control.
 ST. PAUL: ‘Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord’
 KATHERINE PHILIPS: ‘A Married State’: the rebellion she finds is only possible when they
become nuns, which implies submission at the end of the day. She is a victim of misogyny
herself.
 HENRY SMITH: A Preparative for Marriage ‘Husbands hold their hands and wives their
tongues’
 MARY WROTH: Urania (1621). Lord Denny compared her with her uncle Sidney (Urania
was too similar to Astrophil and Stella – in the case of Sidney he was considered, but
Mary’s was not appreciated, she was almost punished).
Women’s Reaction to Misogyny

1. Esther Sowernam (contrast with the man being Sweet)

a. Esther hath hanged haman
b. Joseph Swetnam: Arraignment of… Women
2. Aemilia Lanyer – black women in Shakespeare
a. Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum (1611)
3. Mary Wroth
a. Pamphilia to Amphilanthus (1621) – voice to a woman that is the active part in
the game (unlike the rest of sonnets)
4. Katherine Philips (Matchless Orinda)
a. ‘Friendship’s Mysterys’
b. Henry Lawes
5. Aphra Behn: innovative, yet there is a paradox in herself. She said the poet inside her
was “the masculine part” of herself. She needs to justify herself as a potent writer by
making herself masculine.
a. Oroonoko (1688)
6. Mary Astell: for many critics she is the beginning, not Wollstonecraft. She discovered
the importance of Education in women and compared the married woman with a
slave. Compares slavery of men (Locke) with that of women inside the house, tries to
make women feel subjugated.
a. Some Reflections Upon Marriage (1700)
7. Other figures
a. Margaret Cavendish: Sicuable Letters
b. Dorothy Osborne
c. Isabella Whitney
d. An Collins
e. Anne Bradstreet

3. MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT

Reaction Against Patriarchy

1. Edmund Burke: Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and
Beautiful. His vision of the sublime was connected with masculinity, violence, pain. The
beautiful with femininity and pleasure. He assumes that the reader is a male reader.
2. John Milton: Paradise Lost (1667, 1674). Figure of Eve.
3. Rousseau: Émile (1762).

a. Vindications of the Rights of Men (1790)

b. Vindications of the Rights of Women (1792)
Women are not objects of desire and decoration, they don’t decorate and nothing else. She
criticizes that women are the result of the image of women projected by men. She criticizes
Romance Novels with women in distress that need to be protected etc., this view of femininity is
artificial.

Criticizes also women being patronized, but if they want, they can accept that artificial role. But
she supported the other option.

PARADOX: BARBARA TAYLOR. She rejected sexuality, not being treated as women. For her it is
important to create the separation of sexes, becoming somehow “asexual”, contrary to Virgnia
Woolf (as a man embracing your feminine side and vice versa). For her gender is a prison and you
have to break it by rejecting sexuality.

She was forgotten until George Elliot rediscovered her 60 years after her death.

Her contemporaries

1. Maria Edgeworth: impact on Wollstonecraft regarding the importance of Education for

women.
a. Letters of Julia and Caroline
b. Practical Education: focus on education for women.
c. Letters for Literary Ladies: educated women were considered monsters (if you
educate a woman the result is a monster), women as decorative objects. If a
society needs to advance women need to be educated.
d.
2. Mary Robinson
a. Letters to the Women of England
b. Anne Frances Randall
3. George Eliot: importance of the sexuality of a woman being removed. Antithesis to the idea
of androgyny by Virginia Woolf.
a. Margaret Fuller and Mary Wollstonecraft
b. Woman in France
4. John Stuart Mill: feminist. Member of parliament, instrumental in giving access to women’s
rights (to vote), opened the door for the 1 st wave of feminism based on suffragists. Man
and woman had to communicate, so women had to have education in order to be equal to
the man. Connections with Mary Astel (slavery at home).
a. The Subjection of Women – HARRIET TAYLOR. With her wife, feminist book.
b. On Liberty

01/10/2020

1. Antislavery campaign (1830s)

 Sarah and Angeline Grimké
 Margaret Fuller: Woman in Nineteenth Century (1845)
 2. Seneca Falls Convention (1848)
 Elizabeth Cady Stanton
 Lucrecia Mott
3. Women’s organizations (1920s-30s): Sangers and Gilman
 US: National Woman’s Party and National American Woman Suffrage Association.
 England: London Society for Women’s Suffrage (1867) and Lydia Becker’s Women’s
Suffrage Journal (1870)
4. Feminist Science Fiction
 Gilman’s Herland (1915)
 Roquia Sakhawat Hussain’s Sultana’s Dream (1905)
 Clare Winger Harris and Gertrude Barrows Bennet (1920s)
5. Right to vote
 US: Nineteenth Amendment (August 1920)
 England: Representation of the people act (1918 and 1928)
6. Mid-20th century: Nationalization of Women (Thebaud and Cott)

VIRGINIA WOOLF

GILMAN: ‘Men and Art’ from Man-Made World (1911)

TOPICS

 Oxbridge (imaginary place) and narrator

 Room metaphor: symbol of a prison; However, the room is being reappropriated by
women.
 Tradition of women’s writing: She gives visibility to women writers. There was a strong
group of women writing at that time
 Androgynous writing (Coleridge):
 Controversy (black women): ‘It is one of the great advantages of being a woman that one
can pass even a very fine negress without wishing to make an Englishwoman of her’.

Other Essays

‘Romance and the Heart’ (1923)

‘Professions for Women’ (1931)

‘Memories of a Working Women’s Guild’ (1931)

‘Three Guineas’ (1938)

‘The Leaning Tower’ (1940)

SECOND WAVE FEMINISM

 SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR

 Important figure of the second wave

 She was connected with existentialism
 ‘You are not born a woman; you make yourself a woman’

Second Sex (1949)

 Influential in feminism.
 It was forbidden to be read by Catholics
 It explains how woman was created by a myth. It tries to deconstruct that vision of the
woman.
 It identifies and exposes the mechanism of patriarchy.
 It deconstructs the ideological use of stereotypes.

Influences: Lévi-Strauss, Psychoanalysis: Jung, Marx: myth and ideology, Existentialism:

‘Woman’ Biologism.

Myths

 Creation: How women are typically presented as a servant.

 Fecundity: How women are connected with procreation.
 Virginity: How valued is virginity for young women.
 Femme fatale and feminine mystery: association of women to the devil.
 Holy Mother and Evil Mother
 Pygmalion: a man creates a woman

Danger of myths: Four writers

 Montherlant
 D.H Lawrence
 Claudel
 Breton

BETTY FRIEDAN

The Feminine Mystique (1963)

 Mystification of women.

KATE MILLET

Sexual Politics (1970)

Male Authors

 D.H Lawrence
  Henry Miller
 Norman Mailer
 Jean Genet
 Freud, George Meredith, John Ruskin and John Stuart Mill.

Other Writers

 Germaine Greer: The Female Eunuch

 Sheila Row Botham: Women’s Liberation and the New Politics
 Juliet Mitchell: Woman’s Estate

ELAINE SHOWALTER

Gynocriticism

 Feminist Critique
 Gynocriticism

A Literature of Their Own (1977)

 Women as consumers of male culture

Other Examples

 Gilbert and Gubar: Madwoman in the Attic (1979)

 Patricia Meyer Spacks: Female Imagination (1975)
 Ellen Moers: Literary Women (1976)

Feminist Publishing Houses

 Feminist Press (NY)

 Virago and Women’s Press (UK)

FRENH FEMINISM

NEW FRENCH FEMINISM (Marks and Courtivron, 1980)

ANGLO-AMERICAN FRENCH

-Humanist -Deconstructionist

-Liberal Political Theory -Existentialism

-Nineteenth-century and classic realism -Avant-garde and modernism

SIGMUND FREUD

OEDIPUS COMPLEX
CASTRATION ANXIETY

ID – EGO – SUPEREGO

JACQUES LACAN

Écrits (1977)

Imaginary -> Freud

Mirror Stage -> Lacan

Symbolic -> Kristeva

FRENCH FEMINISTS (CONTRARY)

Kristeva-> Semiotic metaphor

Cixous-> Ècriture feminine

Iragaray-> Metaphor Speculum

THIRD WAVE FEMINISM

BLACK FEMINIST CRITICISM

ALICE WALKER: ‘WOMANISM’

Walker:

 ‘In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens’ (1974)

 ‘Looking for Zora’ (1975)

Responses

 Combahee River Collective: ‘A Black Feminist Statement’ (1977)

 Barbara Smith: ‘Toward a Black Feminist Criticism’ (1977)
 Deborah McDowell: ‘New Directions for Black Feminist Criticism’ (1980)
 Barbara Christian: Black Women Novelists (1980)

Other Black Voices: Bell Hooks and Audre Lorde

POSTCOLONIAL FEMINISM

Foundational Texts

 Franz Fanon: The Wretched of the Earth (1967)

 Edward Said: Orientalism (1978)
 Homi Bhabha: The Location of Culture (1994)
 Chandra Mohanty: ‘Under Western Eyes’ (1991)
 Gayatri Spivak:

-‘Can the Subaltern Speak? (1988)

-‘Three Women’s Text and a Critique of Imperialism’ (1985)

- ‘A Critique of Postcolonial Reason’ (1999)

06/10/2020

“The Yellow Wallpaper”

1. Make a summary of the story. What is Gilman’s intention in writing this sort of story?

The husband is controlling her position in the house and her role. Even her own choices. She is
secretly writing a journal. The story is about the evolution of how she perceives the place. She
gets more and more destabilize. Domesticated woman in “prison”. There is an evolution of
WOMEN behind the paper. She discovers her real self in a prison in a world of men. At the end
of the story there is some kind of liberation. The woman comes out of the paper. She gets wild
at the end and the husband is shocked. The position of women in relation to writing. Female
Malady. The intention of this writing denunciation of the rescure. Feminist manifesto. It’s an
autobiographical fiction, a short story.

2. Is the narrator in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ identified with Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the
author? Justify your answer.

There is an episode on her life where she lives the same that she writes. There is a connection
of the writer and the protagonist. She uses her experiences in an exaggerated way and the
result is a cautionary tale. First person narrator that becomes very reliable. She progressively
loses control of the situation, she is a confessional narrator, we can see the gradual progress
of loosening her mind.

3. Think about the situation of women (especially white, middle-class women) in the
nineteenth century and how it is reflected in the story. Think also about the role of the
husband in the story (take into account his profession as a doctor and the state of
medicine at that time concerning the female nervous condition).
Similarities with reality and fiction in the story.
 The end of the story it looks like she loses herself, but in the real life there is a recovery of
the woman.
 The real occupation of her husband is artist, in the story is not an artist, there is a contrast
because she is an artist, showing the emotional part, and he is a doctor, showing the
rational part, controlling part.
 In real life the baby is a daughter, in the story it is a boy, it is a way of isolating the
protagonist completely. A way of isolating her from women.
Title for the conception of women of the time. The cult of women. Woman prisoned on their
houses is a cyclical problem. The brother, who is a doctor too, is used to emphasize the control of
the woman. The women writers are presented as a bigger possibility of getting mad, a crazy figure.

Contrast of the treatment of men writers and women writers.

4. In what way is John an authoritarian figure and how does the narrator manage to
express herself?

The woman expresses herself by writing the secret journal. The genre of the story is a journal,
a very feminine genre. Showing visibility of genre by women. Creating a bounding with other
works. Connections between women writers. Women need to find other women in their same
situation to construct a community. It is a cyclical story, reference to French feminism (ècriture
feminine)->Strategy of the writer.

Notion of the panopticon-> Type of imprisonment in order to control the prisoners by the
look. Effect if Panopticism, based on the control by the look.

Representation of her mind. Connected with the system of patriarchy controlling the whole
room, but also the sense of imprisonment.

5. Discuss the symbolism of the wallpaper and the room. Mention and explain all the
comparisons of the wallpaper (underline them later in the close reading). 6 Explain the
resolution of the story. How would you interpret the ending?

Semiotic-> irrational Symbolism-> rational

Wallpaper is the symbolism of the mirror (when the child recognizes the reflection oh himself
for the first time) -> According to the mirror stage you have to abandon your irrational side
but, in the story, she returns to the semiotic in the mirror stage, we have the image of the
mirror stage but in an opposite perspective. She revises the connection with sensibility, with
her connection with the mother. Ella va perdiendo la racionalidad, en lugar de encontrar a
una mujer racional encontramos a una mujer que retrocede a lo semiótico en lugar de a lo del
simbolismo. Es una mujer tan inteligente que se esta haciendo la loca. Fase del espejo, pero
invertida. La primera lectura es una simple critica al patriarcado representado por los
doctores, que vuelven loca a las mujeres. La otra lectura es que la mujer finge estar loca para
que los hombres no acepten ese papel, con el objetivo de destruir al enemigo, que es su
marido.

At the end of the story, the wallpaper is completely destructed by her. There is a moment in
the end when she feels comfortable in the room. She appropriates her room (reference to a
room of her own) -> process of change of the protagonist.
 ANALYSIS OF THE STORY

A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate-> The beginning of story is very gothic. Typical mansion
you find in gothic fiction.

John is practical in the extreme. In gothic fiction women are irrational, very sentimental, men are
the contrary.

I would say a haunted house-> She believes in ghosts. Irrational part of the women shown. Insane
woman who lives in fantasy vs rational husband.

Else, why should it be let so cheaply? And why have stood so long untenanted? -> Invented
theories. We get an unreliable narrator at the beginning. We as readers doubt the reliability of the
woman in this story.

Repetition of pronoun “one” at the beginning-> Linguistic choice. Self-abnegation of the woman.
Dependent of the husband. She has no voice, constantly dependence of her husband.

John is a physician, and perhaps ->Emphasis of the position of man. The man is the one you can
rely on.

I would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper-> Reference to her journal. It is
a dead paper, because no one is going to read this. This is an irony. A way to denounce the
position of women. Dramatic irony-> she thinks something that the reader doesn’t think. The
journal is death at the beginning but at the end is so fully in life.

The names of the characters are common, a way to make the story something current.

My brother is also a physician, and also of high standing, and he says the same thing->
Patriarchal brotherhood. Homosociality. He doesn’t support his sister; he supports other man that
construct patriarchy. Link of men.

So I take phosphates or phosphites-> There is a lack of rationality in woman discourse according

to medicine.

Personally, I disagree with their ideas. Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement
and change, would do me good. But what is one to do? -> She is not able to express her ideas.
She is rebellious but she continues with the self-abnegation.

English places that you read about, for there are hedges and walls and gates that lock-> The
house is presented as a prison.

Sun-> Man Moon-> Woman

But John says if I feel so, I shall neglect proper self-control; so I take pains to control myself --
before him, at least, and that makes me very tired. -> She has to do a lot of effort to endure
men’s treatment. Dosmeticity is not natural for her.
I don't like our room a bit. I wanted one downstairs that opened on the piazza and had roses all
over the window, and such pretty old-fashioned chintz hangings! but John would not hear of it->
Confrontation of woman’s desire, but this is suffocated by her husband.

He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction. I have a schedule
prescription for each hour in the day;-> Strategy of husband, he is loving to control her.

It was nursery first and then playroom and gymnasium, I should judge; for the windows are
barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls. (emphasis of the prison) The
paint and paper look as if a boys' school had used it-> The woman is like a child to be discipline.
Infantilize woman.

One of those sprawling flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin. -> Emphasizes
ornamental pattern that has been for ages. It has rule but that rules don’t apply to that pattern.

It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, -> She wants to follow the pattern, she tries to
understand the pattern, some women don’t question the pattern, she does.

It is a dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulphur tint in others-> Sickly-> This system
makes you feel sick. She becomes a patient. She is a victim of a system that makes her feel ill.

08/10

I am sitting by the window now, up in this atrocious nursery-> Perception of the place, bedroom,
she hates it.

I am glad my case is not serious! -> Trying convince herself that it is not serious. She gets obsessed
with the situation. Dramatic irony.

Of course, it is only nervousness. It does weigh on me so not to do my duty in any way!->

Tormented character. She might feel guilty. Sense of guilt. How she tries to fit but she can’t. She
can’t be the housewife that people expect.

It is fortunate Mary is so good with the baby. Such a dear baby! And yet I cannot be with him, it
makes me so nervous. -> Depresión post-parto.

Nothing was worse for a nervous patient than to give way to such fancies. -> Manipulation->
connection with rational thought. To have fancy, imagination.

He said that after the wall-paper was changed it would be the heavy bedstead, and then the
barred windows, and then that gate at the head of the stairs, and so on. -> The house as a prison.

Then he took me in his arms and called me a blessed little goose. -> Protection of the man.
 It is an airy and comfortable room as any one need wish, and, of course, I would not be so silly
as to make him uncomfortable just for a whim. -> Everything related to women, housewives is
irrelevant, a whim.

Image of women writers: women writers bad because if they fancy or imagine they are thought to
be crazy, and in men it doesn’t happen. Something unnatural

He says that with my imaginative power and habit of story-making-> He is admitting she has the
skills of a good writer. These are misread by the husband. You have to restrict yourself from this
imaginative side.

A nervous weakness like mine is sure to lead to all manner of excited fancies. -> Fancy is
connected with madness.

It is so discouraging not to have any advice and companionship about my work. -> Connected
with criticism. Women as active figures. Totally isolated, she doesn’t have the support of other
women. Not only isolated by men but also by women.

John says we will ask Cousin Henry and Julia down for a long visit. -> He controls everything.

This paper looks to me as if it knew what a vicious influence it has. -> Paper is connected with
control. Controlling her. Panopticism.

I get positively angry with the impertinence of it and the everlastingness. Up and down and
sideways they crawl, and those absurd, unblinking eyes are everywhere-> She feels observed
and controlled. Sense of Panopticism. The voyeur is the paper, she is the one observed.

I used to lie awake as a child and get more entertainment and terror out of blank walls and
plain furniture than most children could find in a toy-store-> She as a child was also a writer, she
had too much imagination but she is not allowed to project that creativity.

I used to feel that if any of the other things looked too fierce I could always hop into that chair
and be safe. -> She needs to be rescued but she is going to discover she is going to be herself
protector. Image of women needed to be rescued, saved.

The wall-paper, as I said before, is torn off in spots, and it sticked closer than a brother. -> It feels
suffocating.

There comes John's sister. Such a dear girl as she is, and so careful of me! I must not let her find
me writing.-> John’s sister name (Jenny) is given late because the relationship of sister with John is
more important than her own name.

Janice Raymond

Hetero reality VS Gyn affection

Jenny is a patriarchal, she is an enemy.

 I can see a strange, provoking, formless sort of figure, that seems to skulk about behind that
silly and conspicuous front design. -> Wall paper representing patriarchy. Ideological state
apparatuses. Behind the paper there is a sense of manipulation. Anticipation of “sort of figure”
that is the woman.

The Fourth of July is over. -> Independence of a nation. Independence of a woman.

But I don't want to go there at all. I had a friend who was in his hands once, and she says he is
just like John and my brother, only more so! -> The friend is herself, the writer. She is inserting
herself in the story. It’s kind of funny. To go beyond the fiction and connect with her
biographically.

I'm getting really fond of the room in spite of the wall-paper. Perhaps because of the wall-
paper.-> This woman differs from the other women. She doesn’t conform herself. She tries to
rationalize.

This thing was not arranged on any laws of radiation, or alternation, or repetition, or symmetry,
or anything else that I ever heard of. -> System as chaotic. She feels there is a manipulation.

There is one end of the room where it is almost intact, and there, when the crosslights fade and
the low sun shines directly upon it, I can almost fancy radiation after all, -- the interminable
grotesques seem to form around a common centre and rush off in headlong plunges of equal
distraction. -> Panopticism. Prison where is centre where everything is controlled.

It makes me tired to follow it. I will take a nap I guess. ---------- I don't know why I should write
this. I don't want to. I don't feel able. -> She has fear. She emphasizes her voice. “I”,”I”’repetition.
Now it’s me. Now it’s my voice.

(Find line).-> Patriarchal system search ways of making you feel drunk.

And dear John gathered me up in his arms, and just carried me upstairs and laid me on the bed,
and sat by me and read to me till it tired my head. -> Strategy of the husband coincides with the
strategy of the paper.

I never thought of it before, but it is lucky that John kept me here after all, I can stand it so much
easier than a baby, you see.-> She is becoming a little revolutionary but there is irony. She is
presented as a child too.

So much easier than a baby, you see. Of course I never mention it to them any more -- I am too
wise, -- but I keep watch of it all the same. -> We can see her strategy. Her strategy is silence buy
little by little preparing an attack.

There are things in that paper that nobody knows but me, or ever will.-> Visionary character. She
can see things that others not. Empowering herself.
And it is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern. I don't like it a
bit. I wonder -- I begin to think -- I wish John would take me away from here! -> Climax of the
story. How she finds the paper as a mirror. She discovers her own projection. Awareness she is a
slave and prisoner in the system. This discovery is destabilizing for her. She feels scared. She needs
the protection of the husband. Ambiguous situation. She is not allowed to explore that knowledge.

She is demanding the light of the sun.

John was asleep and I hated to waken him, so I kept still and watched the moonlight on that
undulating wall-paper till I felt creepy. The faint figure behind seemed to shake the pattern, just
as if she wanted to get out. I got up softly and went to feel and see if the paper did move, and
when I came back John was awake. -> When her husband is slept is when she feels she has the
control. She is the one looking.

"Better in body perhaps -- "I began, and stopped short, for he sat up straight and looked at me
with such a stern, reproachful look that I could not say another word. -> Emphasizes the fact that
when he awakes, she can’t observe.

13/10/2020

IMPORTANCE OF THE LIGHT, HOW IT AFFECTS THE WALLPAPER.

On a pattern like this, by daylight, there is a lack of sequence, a defiance of law, that is a
constant irritant to a normal mind. -> ??

but the pattern is torturing. You think you have mastered it, but just as you get well underway in
following, it turns a back somersault and there you are. It slaps you in the face, knocks you
down, and tramples upon you. It is like a bad dream. -> Image of the wallpaper, it is like a
nightmare.

An interminable string of toadstools, budding and sprouting in endless convolutions. ->

Poisonous dimension of the wallpaper. Revealing this paper is not innocent. Control behind the
paper.

She is the only one who knows the intention of the wallpaper.

At night in any kind of light, in twilight, candlelight, lamplight, and worst of all by moonlight, it
becomes bars! The outside pattern I mean, and the woman behind it is as plain as can be. ->
Image of the moonlight, this light allows woman see things that others can’t. The pattern becomes
a prison. She can see clearly the woman. She is pretty sure about the prison she is in.

By daylight she is subdued, quiet. -> Women are subdued by patriarchist. Women like Jenny are
subdued.
Obvious change in the character; she has a strategy: to pretend she is ok of whatever but she is
hiding information on purpose. Although she looks mad, she is intelligently controlling everything.
She is also trying to cheat the readers.

It strikes me occasionally, just as a scientific hypothesis, -- that perhaps it is the paper! -> She
appropriates this scientific hypothesis to make her seem rational. She metaphorically speaks about
this scientific hypothesis and uses to explain her position. Estrategia de apropiación.

The husband thinks he is in control, but instead she is controlling him.

Then she said that the paper stained everything it touched, that she had found yellow smooches
on all my clothes and John's, and she wished we would be more careful! -> Patriarchy affects
both women and men. It has a negative effect on men.

I turned it off with a laugh. I had no intention of telling him it was because of the wall-paper --
he would make fun of me. He might even want to take me away. -> She is pretending not to do
anything, but she is doing a lot.

Evolution of the paper. It has too much light. It is personalized.

It is the strangest yellow, that wall-paper! It makes me think of all the yellow things I ever saw --
not beautiful ones like buttercups, but old foul, bad yellow things. -- the smell! I noticed it the
moment we came into the room, but with so much air and sun it was not bad. Now we have had
a week of fog and rain, and whether the windows are open or not, the smell is here -> Very
sensorial description of the wallpaper. Negativity of the color emphasized. The smell of the
wallpaper; it is the patriarchal system; it is always there but you can’t see it. But she is getting
used to it, by appropriating the smell, the yellow wall and this, is to her own advantage.

She returns to what the maternal should be. Imposed role to women connected to domesticity.
She returns to the semiotic side.

Al final se ha apropiado de estas sensaciones sensoriales y de alguna forma lo ha transformado a

través de su escritura y capacidad artística, en algo luminoso, bonito, en una sinestesia.

Sometimes I think there are a great many women behind, and sometimes only one, and she
crawls around fast. -> New step that she is not the only woman, she realizes that she is not
isolated, there are more women in her position. She is suggesting that some women are in this
situation because they think they are alone.

It must be very humiliating to be caught creeping by daylight! -> Servility for women. It also
shows the strategy of hiding. Estamos tirada en el suelo, pero podemos convertirlo en una
estrategia de camuflaje para destruir el sistema.

She looks for the collaboration of women.

Now the paper is laughing at her. En este punto del relato ella ve cosas en todo.
Dichotomy of the character. At the end of the story she is obsessed.

The room is like a naked body. When the husband opens the door, she finds her wife crawling ->
animalization of the woman. The body is naked as the room is empty. Inversion of pattern,
panopticon is reversed, she is the one who has to open the door to him.

20/10/2020

“In celebration of My Uterus”

 Instead of presenting the traditional romanticized idea of maternity, Sexton presents

maternity as something that has a role in the nation, something that nations control and
benefit from. It is used as an instrument just to procreate

Everyone in me is a bird. I am beating all my wings/ Each cell has a life. -> it's like the different
parts of her have a life of their own as well. She tries to emphasize the potential of maternity in a
metaphorical way. Capacity of women of creating lives.

Any person, any commonwealth would say of it. -> it is related to that plurality. There is a
parallelism, to notice that person and commonwealth are related here. How bodies can have a
politic impact.

“It is good this year that we may plant again   

and think forward to a harvest.
A blight had been forecast and has been cast out.”-> the roots are already there and now women
can wait for the harvest (a more feminist society). Maybe there is an opportunity to a new society.
Contrast with blight. The blights that are mentioned in the bible it is referring to patriarchy.
Contrast vs past and present.

Many women are singing together of this. -> Powerful women.

Anaphora of “one”-> Idea of sorority. Union of women. Sisterhood.

 Contrast btw wallpaper and this poem. At the beginning of wallpaper, the woman is
presented as isolated. However, on this poem women are all united.

One is in a shoe factory cursing the machine. One is at the aquarium tending a seal. One is dull
at the wheel of her Ford. -> General approach of women’s bounding. Working women being part
of society. all women are in this movement.

There are 13 “one”-> Biblical reference: Jesus and the apostles. It represents the communion. The
number 13th is presented anywhere as God. The last one embodies all the rest. There is
enjambment-> sense of unity. All these apostles are unique, but they are all together.
all seem to be singing, although some can not sing a note. -> Women who have no choice. Together
they will have a voice. Reference to the last supper. -> it's actually a sad moment, they are sending
Jesus off to his death a preparation of what is going to happen. Judas

Sweet weight. -> Repetition.

Let me… repetition. -> She demands action. All kinds of actions, not only the ones considered to
be for women. Showing that women also have potential for doing anything.

For this thing the body needs let me sing.-> That they are as a whole entity, something seen as
vulnerable. In reality, they are more than that and they can do as much as a man can do but also
more than they can give. For example, a woman can't be seen as an object or something
vulnerable by being a female, the truth is that even as a body, they also have a powerful sense of
being and doing. Celebration of the body.

For the supper, for the kissing, for the correct yes. -> Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss

GETTING MY MOTHER’S SEWING MACHINE ACROSS BASS STRAIT

SUMMARY: It's a kind of emotional story of the grief of a mother and the machine is the
connection between both.

1. Section 1 (p. 165). Discuss the symbolism of the sewing machine in connection with
femininity: It is a reference to school because they are taught how to use the machine. It
is related to domesticity. Machine is presented as ornamental and pretty as femininity.

Lines 3-4-> connection btw machine and girls; part of the nature of girls

Lines 7-8-> positive connotations of singing connected with the machine. Machine is
presented as something good, but it is something artificial, bad: domestic trap for women.

“He had an enormous carriage built…”-> THIS GIVES US THE IDEA THAT WOMEN are
surrounded by a patriarchal system because it's a man who makes the machine.

In my school…Rule number four-> Doctrination of the machine. Imposition of the machine in

little children.

She is a rebellious character. She uses the rules that are created for women and turns them
into something positive. She is going to convert the artificiality of the machine in a personal
symbol of connection with her mother.

The machine is connected with the sensorial. Watch the ritual and smell the warm cloth that had
dried in the fresh air. watch, smell, war

22/10
“When…. iron”-> Polysyndeton of elements of domesticity. Imposition of it to women. How they
have the knowledge of it.

“We loved each other”-> Mother and daughter’s connection

“Watch the ritual and smell the warm cloth”-> Sensorial association with the mother. Sensorial
dimension.

The mother destroys all the pictures of the narrator. She destroys her identity. She has to rejects
her mother by dying (the mother) and she moves to Tasmania that is the irrational side. ->
ABJECTION (everything you want tot keep as a secret bc is destabilizes the rationality of the
system).

“The sewing machine that used to be…insects lived”-> The sewing machine is kept in a secret
place as a mother. It is a taboo. There is a parallelism between the relation with her mother and
the past of aboriginal people, both stories are destroyed and replaced

The stepmother represents the figure of an impostor.

“I acquired a stepmother. She is in church of...she is not a wicked stepmother. She is not my
mother” (page 167)-> She has an impact on the light of the speaker. The sewing machine has a
unique power, let's say. With a sewing machine, you are able to connect things made of cloth,
whether or not they were "cut from the same cloth" as they say. I feel as though the step mother
is sort of "preventing" the character from "sewing together" the missing pieces of her identity, by
keeping the sewing machine out of reach. Mother-> secret. Stepmother-> guardian of the secret.

“When she looks into my mother’s looking-glass”. ->

No puedes entregarte a lo semiótico sin el apoyo del patriarcado (racionalidad).

Mother-> semiotic side.

“Claim my machine”-> she is ready to face her step mother (rational part).

Semiotic – abject

Mirror stage

Page 171… “I think I should have been writing…. sewing machine”->

¿Vision of Tasmania in page 171?

For her, Tasmania is misrepresented in historical books. It is a place where secrets happen.
Importance of tourism: it is connected with the settler that invaded the place and appropriated it.

Convicts-> degree of criminality is very visible.

Visibility of real history of her
“The escapes…and horror” page 171-> The vocabulary reflects secrecy. Skeletons of hidden
aboriginal

She understands herself as part of the settler. She never appropriates the story of aboriginals,

She feels that she has to apologize because she's white

Motif of the ghost.

Ella quiere ser una aliada de ellos.

ENDING PAGES 172-173

Symbolism of the tourists to end the story: people who don’t belong to the place core. Image of
the tourists invading the place. She makes distinctions btw people. She is maybe a visitor but when
she visits the island, she is not a foreigner bc she used to live there. But maybe I was an invader bc
I didn’t belong there but I lived.

Singer?

There is a metanarrative reference to the process of writing (p. 168, p. 172). How does it reveal
the narrator’s rebellious perspective? What literary genre does the story belong to?

What we are reading is presented in the form of a letter. It is an autobiography. It in an essay. She
uses her own life and then she connects it with the past of Tasmania.

ESSAY - MEMOIR - SHORT STORY WRITING

29/10/20

PENELOPIAD: MARGARET ATWOOD

The novel presents a sarcastic and critical side. The only leading role is for Penelope, the rest of
the women disappear from the title itself. She tries to imitate the structure of the epic, although
she does it, this is still a parody, she is laughing at that classic structure. She is criticizing the
exclusion of women in canonical literature although she follows epic structure.

QUESTION 2. The novel begins with two quotations from The Odyssey. How do they contribute

to set the tone of Atwood’s revision? (connect them with the Introduction to the

book). What aspects do these quotations highlight that are going to contrast

sharply with Atwood’s version?

The character of Penelope is undeveloped, she is a stereotype (in the poem) in contrast with this,
in the book, we have a complex character. She has a voice. She's also self-aware, knows her
intelligence and is compassionate towards other people. One of the strategies is that she pretends
to be innocent and pretty.

He took a cable which had seen service on a blue-bowed ship, made one end fast to a high
column in the portico, and threw the other over the round-house, high up, so that their feet
would not touch the ground. As when long-winged thrushes or doves get entangled in a snare …
so the women’s heads were held fast in a row, with nooses round their necks, to bring them to
the most pitiable end. For a little while their feet twitched, but not for very long-> Image of the
maids-> They cannot be forgiven. They are sexually active. They have been not loyal to Penelope.
There is not a happy ending for that women that are sexually active and there is a happy ending
for women who follow the patriarchal system.

get entangled in a snare …-> These women have been victim of a snare. it's almost as they have to
be hunted down.

CHAPTER I

TITLE-> A LOW ART-> It is a reference to the inferiority of women ('low') and a criticism the lack of
importance of women's writings. She is referring to the alternative story she is giving us, what she
qualifies as low. It can also be foreshadowing for what Penelope does later like weaving which is
considered to be art for women. It is all the connotations given to women writers.

The book begins (chapter i) with a clear metanarrative intention. The very title, ‘A Low Art’, is
ironic of women’s role in Literature, their writing always perceived as ‘low’. In this particular
case, irony becomes more prominent when the intertextual work is one of the most important
and classic epics in patriarchal Western Literature: The Odyssey. Pay attention to the following
aspects in Chapter i that clearly suggest an alternative écriture feminine in Atwood’s revision.

 The narrator: An omniscient narrator talking in first person narrator. Although Penelope
is not reliable at all however, she is telling us her story. She learns to be a liar because of
Odysseus. She gives that impression though; she is a very likeable character. She has a
dark side. She is dead that is because she is an omniscient narrator. “I’ll spin a thread of
my own.”-> connection weaving with the art of storytelling. She is good in both things.
 Metanarration and its link with ‘the low art of tale-telling’ in women. -> references to
writing within the story. -> in the title. She is referring to another work throughout the entire
novel. She is continually making reference to the act of storytelling

“Old women go in for it, strolling beggars, blind singers, maidservants, children – folks with time
on their hands”. -> illiterate people connected with low art of women. Characters which are not
heroic. She is demanding attention for these minorities.

 Women’s writing as sensorial, bodily (study the reification of words in the chapter).
“Since being dead – since achieving this state of bonelessness, liplessness, breastlessness” –
sensorial side. She is able to reach to the physical dimension. Obsessed with the condition of being
women although they are dead.

“Of course, I had inklings, about his slipperiness, his wiliness, his foxiness, his – how can I put
this? – his unscrupulousness, but I turned a blind eye. I kept my mouth shut; or, if I opened it, I
sang his praises. I didn’t contradict, I didn’t ask awkward questions, I didn’t dig deep. I wanted
happy endings in those days, and happy endings are best achieved by keeping the right doors
locked and going to sleep during the rampages”-> description of what she does with the body.
Obsession with the body although she is dead.

“Down here everyone arrives with a sack, like the sacks used to keep the winds in, but each of
these sacks is full of words – words you’ve spoken, words you’ve heard, words that have been
said about you. Some sacks are very small, others large; my own is of a reasonable size, though a
lot of the words in it concern my eminent husband. What a fool he made of me; some say. It was
a specialty of his: making fools. He got away with everything, which was another of his
specialties: getting away.”->Stories can have an impact in reality.

A stick used to beat other women with. -> writing becomes another way of violence against
women, constructing images that limit women. Myths of women are not innocent; they are used as
weapons to maintain that indoctrination.

“The difficulty is that I have no mouth through which I can speak. I can’t make myself
understood, not in your world, the world of bodies, of tongues and fingers; and most of the time
I have no listeners, not on your side of the river.”-> She doesn’t realize that she is obsessed with
the body. No se puede deshacer del cuerpo. DRAMATIC IRONY.

5. Chapter ii sets the tone for the ‘Chorus Line’ chapters devoted to the hanged maids.
What kind of literary genres do we find in those chapters and what is the effect in the
narrative? it's like a song for children. Group of maids that give us a rhyme for children.

PREGUNTAR A GLORIA

Scopophilia

6. Chapter iii offers the official beginning of Penelope’s story. In what sense is Atwood ironic
about Penelope’s origins? How is the notion of ‘origin’ deconstructed? Somehow

“Where shall I begin? There are only two choices: at the beginning or not at the beginning. The
real beginning would be the beginning of the world, after which one thing has led to another;
but since there are differences of opinion about that, I’ll begin with my own birth.”-> It starts
with a rhetorical question. She questions things constantly. She is making fun of the epic. The most
evident case she questions the traditional format. She doesn’t take anything for granted. It is the
result of an imposition. when she says ''where shall I begin? She is emphasizing that she is going to
'produce' low art like we talked about last week, right? She is playing with the art of the epic or
high style production

No matter – into the sea I was thrown. Do I remember the waves closing over me, do I
remember the breath leaving my lungs and the sound of bells people say the drowning hear?
Not in the least. But I was told the story”-> I have been converted into story. She becomes into a
manipulated story. Hypophora (rhetorical figure) she doesn’t know if what she remembers is true
or not.

It is to this episode – or rather, to my knowledge of it – that I attribute my reserve, as well as my

mistrust of other people’s intentions. -> she is questioning the truth of all these events. Penelope
is presented as a not innocent woman.

But perhaps this shroud-weaving oracle idea of mine is baseless. Perhaps I have only invented it
in order to make myself feel better. So much whispering goes on, in the dark caverns, in the
meadows, that sometimes it’s hard to know whether the whispering is coming from others or
from the inside of your own head. I use head figuratively. We have dispensed with heads as
such, down here-> It is impossible for her to detach from the body.

7. In the relationship between Penelope and her father, we can see the symbolic treatment
of women in patriarchy. Explain this idea.

“Possibly he thought that if he killed me first, his shroud would never be woven and he
would live forever”-> Penelope is an inconvenience and a thread for the father. He has to get
rid of her. The fact that her father tried to kill her made Penelope distrusted him and thus,
that she feared him. The father symbolizes the fear of patriarchy as regards women. She is
going to re-invent weaving. She uses the domestic and turns it into a weapon to kill the father,
patriarchy

8. In this chapter, we can see a self-sufficient and strategic Penelope who is going to differ
from the innocent stereotype of The Odyssey. Find evidence. How she has to survive
when her family is careless about her.

There is lack of maternal instinct. She is a strong character that survived lack of sisterhood.

“she preferred swimming in the river to the care of small children, and I often slipped her
mind.”-> careless mother.

“You can see by what I’ve told you that I was a child who learned early the virtues – if such
they are – of self-sufficiency. I knew that I would have to look out for myself in the world. I
could hardly count on family support.”-> self-sufficient Penelope. She doesn’t have the
support of the family.

That way, if someone makes an inappropriate remark, you can pretend you haven’t heard it.
Then you don’t have to answer. -> Play dumb in order to prepare her counterattack.
 They were a practical help for disguising red, puffy eyes. -> She uses domesticity instead of a
negative place, as a place to prepare her counter attack.

9. Explain the use of the lament.

Lament is a genre that involves tragedy. The genre fits the content. The fact that it is oral
tradition. Instead of this serious genre, we get an oral genre. We don’t want an epic to explain
situation of women, we want oral tradition. Also, lament becomes funny somehow by the
irony. It is because oral tradition is related often to women.

10. How are gender and class linked in this lament? What is the effect of parallelistic
structures? The class status and the gender make slave women susceptible to gendered
violence. In fact, Penelope is able to fight more against the situation because she is rich, the
maids not. There, the class factor is noticeable. “These parents were not gods, they were
not demi-gods, they were not nymphs or Naiads.”-> These women are not part history, of
the winning side. “If our owners or the sons of our owners or a visiting nobleman or the
sons of a visiting nobleman wanted to sleep with us”-> aqui se muestra como las mujeres
están explotadas por los hombres en terminus sexuales. Estan sometidas a ellos.
The maids are sexually active due to their class status and gender, they are exploited by
men.

11. Do the maids want sympathy and recognition or justice and vindication?
The maids want justice and vindication because they are denouncing their situation, they
are not looking for sympathy.
They had to learn to use their bodies as a means to have some kind of agency “we
mastered the secret sneer.” they pretend to be obedient but secret strategy.
“We swayed our hips, we lurked, we winked, we signaled with our eyebrows, even when
we were children; we met boys behind the pigpens, noble boys and ignoble boys alike.
We rolled around in the straw, in the mud, in the dung, on the beds of soft fleece we
were making up for our masters”-> PARALELISIC STRUCTURE TO SHOW SEXUAL
DIMENSION OF WOMEN.
We drank the wine left in the wine cups. We spat onto the serving platters-> In the first
sentence they show their low position, but in the second it is showing their power. They
are in control of the situation.
We snatched what we could. -> “Snatched”-> Female nature. Biology of these women as
women. They are using their female biological features in order to revendicate their rights.
It could also be a reference to the concept of gyn affection by Janice Raymond.
Heteroreality.

CHAPTER V
Asphodel: type of flower in Hades: dead people.
“There are of course the fields of asphodel. You can walk around in them if you want. It’s
brighter there, and a certain amount of vapid dancing goes on, though the region sounds better
than it is – the fields of asphodel has a poetic lilt to it. But just consider. Asphodel, asphodel,
asphodel – pretty enough white flowers, but a person gets tired of them after a while. It would
have been better to supply some variety – an assortment of colors, a few winding paths and
vistas and stone benches and fountains. I would have preferred the odd hyacinth, at least, and
would a sprinkling of crocuses have been too much to expect? Though we never get spring here,
or any other seasons. You do have to wonder who designed the place. Have I mentioned the fact
that there’s nothing to eat except asphodel? But I shouldn’t complain”-> The flower is white, so
it has a connection with purity and women are tired of this relation. Infidelity of Penelope. She is
tired of keeping loyalty to Odysseus. Tired of being innocent. There are many men. There is a
desire to get involve with other men.

13. Penelope’s rivalry with Helen of Troy is introduced for the first time in this chapter (and
will be one of the central topics in the novel). How is this rivalry the result of patriarchal
ideology? How does this rivalry epitomize the two main stereotypes about women in the
patriarchal system? Penelope was the second option for Odysseus, and this is a trauma for
her as she realizes men do not care about women´s mind. Helen of Troy becomes the
sexual object of all women. Helen is a femme fatale and seems to perform an active role
over men but at the end she is summoned by men as well as Penelope. You can never win
as a woman under a patriarchal society, you're always too much of this or that. The identity
of being a woman doesn’t disappear because they are death. Impossible to get rid of
gender issue.

“Helen was never punished, not one bit. Why not, I’d like to know? Other people got
strangled by sea serpents and drowned in storms and turned into spiders and shot with
arrows for much smaller crimes. Eating the wrong cows. Boasting. That sort of thing. You’d
think Helen might have got a good whipping at the very least, after all the harm and suffering
she caused to countless other people. But she didn’t”-> She is not being honest. She is upset
of Helen, example of dramatic irony.

CHAPTER VI

14. How is the Hellenic world presented as chauvinistic in this chapter? Study Penelope’s
case and the way she is ‘won’ by Odysseus. Chauvinistic patriarchal system, marriage as an
economic instrument-> “My marriage was arranged”-> for economic reasons.

The more sword-wielders and spear-throwers you could count on from within your family the
better-> the only thing important is that women have babies.

“Under the old rules only important people had marriages, because only important people
had inheritances. All the rest was just copulation of various kinds – rapes or seductions, love
affairs or one-night stands, with gods who said they were shepherds or shepherds who said
they were gods. Occasionally a goddess”-> Importance of society classes. Women were the
ones who had sex 'occasionally' but men did that every day. Men have the freedom to play
around. Even goddesses don´t have the same sexual freedom that men have. Even shepherds
have more "right" to have sex than goddesses.

Penelope was won by Odysseus, the game was manipulated by Odysseus and Helen’s father.
Penelope's uncle helped him to win her hand. Helen’s father and Penelope’s father were ruling
the same throne periodically (one year each) so Helen's father wanted to make his own brother
"alone" so he would not have someone who defends him when he attacks him.

Tyndareus helps Odysseus because they have a secret interest in order to keep the control of
Penelope. The wanted to maintain the order of patriarchy: homosociety.

Study the use of scopophilia (i.e. the power of the look) in this chapter (Penelope and Helen)
and how Penelope uses it in a strategic way.

Penelope uses the veil to control everything. She appropriates something negative for women,
and turns it into a weapon for her own benefit.

Helen is kind of like the femme fatale, she has agency over the men. She think she is control
because by using the look she attract men.

“As for me, I had trouble making it through the ceremony – the sacrifices of animals, the
offerings to the gods, the lustral sprinklings, the libations, the prayers, the interminable
songs. I felt quite dizzy. I kept my eyes downcast, so all I could see of Odysseus was the lower
part of his body. Short legs, I kept thinking, even at the most solemn moments. This was not
an appropriate thought – it was trivial and silly, and it made me want to giggle – but in my
own defense I must point out that I was only fifteen.”-> She uses a submissive look, she wants
to look defenseless maybe to the eyes of the people. She is strategic. She criticizes Odysseus.
She is empowering her. She is looking without being seeing. She is preparing her counterattack.

CHAPTER VI.

16. Women as commodities in this chapter.

"And so I was handed over to Odysseus, like a package of meat. A package of meat in a
wrapping of gold, mind you. A sort of gilded blood pudding."-> Objectification and
animalization of women. it's like a fancy object. They are something to consume. Cannibalistic
vision of women. Women as pieces of meat.

“As for me, I couldn’t eat a thing. I was too nervous. I sat there shrouded in my bridal veil,
hardly daring to glance at Odysseus. I was certain he would be disappointed in me once he’d
lifted that veil and made his way in through the cloak and the girdle and the shimmering robe
in which I’d been decked out. But he wasn’t looking at me, and neither was anyone else.
They were all staring at Helen, who was dispensing dazzling smiles right and left, not missing
a single man. She had a way of smiling that made each one of them feel that secretly she was
 in love with him alone”-> Instead of a celebration of a wedding we have something related to a
death ritual.

“After the ceremonies and the feasting, there was the usual procession to the bridal
chamber, with the usual torches and vulgar jokes and drunken yelling. The bed had been
garlanded, the threshold sprinkled, the libations poured. The gatekeeper had been posted to
keep the bride from rushing out in horror, and to stop her friends from breaking down the
door and rescuing her when they heard her scream. All of this was play-acting: the fiction was
that the bride had been stolen, and the consummation of a marriage was supposed to be a
sanctioned rape. It was supposed to be a conquest, a trampling of a foe, a mock killing. There
was supposed to be blood.”-> Penelope presents marriage as a rape. It is emphasized by the
blood, representing the loss of virginity. She presents this grotesque image of marriage where
women are presented as animals to be hunted by men in order to denounce their situation.

Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a
caress. Water is not a solid wall; it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to
go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away
a stone. Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water. If you can’t go through an
obstacle, go around it. Water does” Penelope is like the water. Water symbolizes fluidity this is
connected with the freedom of women.

She prefers Odysseus over her father and he likes her because of her money. I would not say
romantic love maybe from her part but not definitely from Odysseus.

You’ve probably heard that my father ran after our departing chariot, begging me to stay with
him, and that Odysseus asked me if I was going to Ithaca with him of my own free will or did I
prefer to remain with my father? It’s said that in answer I pulled down my veil, being too
modest to proclaim in words my desire for my husband, and that a statue was later erected of
me in tribute to the virtue of Modesty. There’s some truth to this story. But I pulled down my
veil to hide the fact that I was laughing. You have to admit there was something humorous
about a father who’d once tossed his own child into the sea capering down the road after that
very child and calling, ‘Stay with me!’ I didn’t feel like staying. At that moment, I could hardly
wait to get away from the Spartan court. I hadn’t been very happy there, and I longed to begin a
new life.-> When Penelope leaves her home to go to Ithaca, her father doesn’t wants her to leave.
As a result of this, she is covers her face, she is hiding she is laughing because she is taking
revenge on her father, she is not that naïve.

CHAPTER VIII

How does the use of this popular tune and of the conditional tense of the title mark the
separation between Penelope and the maids?

Image of the princess connected with the maids, however this image is not realistic, because it is
not connected with the reality of the maids.
“I fetch and I carry, I hear and obey, It’s Yes sir and No ma’am the whole bleeding day”-> Here is
emphasized the slavery condition of women, they have to say yes to the Sir, the patriarchal figure
of the family. Bleeding as the lost of virginity. Sexual violence towards women.

Hard work is my destiny, death is my fate!

It’s hope, and hope only, that keeps us afloat.

Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. -> The maids use the parody to
counteract harshness. They are saying that they are being killed ant they say “thanks”. Women as
victims of the system.

CHAPTER IX

Explain how gender roles are marked in Odysseus and Penelope. How is she infantilized? He is in
control of the situation Penelope is connected with domesticity. He looks as a father and she looks
as a daughter. She is presented as vulnerable.

Thus, I saw little of the beauties of sky and cloud that Odysseus reported on his rare visits to see
how I was feeling. He spent most of the time either at the bow, peering ahead (I imagined) with
a hawk-like gaze in order to spot rocks and sea serpents and other dangers, or at the tiller, or
directing the ship in some other way – I didn’t know how, because I’d never been on a ship
before in my life. I’d gained a great opinion of Odysseus since our wedding day, and admired
him immensely, and had an inflated notion of his capabilities – remember, I was fifteen – so I
had the highest confidence in him, and considered him to be a sea captain who could not fail.-
>reference to scopophilia, emphasis on the look . Heroical dimension of Odysseus in contrast with
the lack of experience of Penelope. He protects Penelope from monsters. They perform the typical
gender roles.

although his manner was that of an older person to a child-> expert old man vs innocent young
woman.

CHAPTER IX

The father chooses the maid of for Penelope. He chooses an old woman instead of a young
woman. This prevents Penelope from connecting with other women. Isolation of women. Notion
of heteroreality: men fear the union of women.

Mother of Odysseys: she doesn't care about Penelope at all. She acts with her in a bitchy way. It is
like the alter ego of Penelope. They are connected. They suffer for Odysseus. At the end of the day
because of that heteroreality of women she feels in the position of power of Penelope.

Page 38-> “So I avoided…. her in time”-> Eurycleia wants to be perfect at the eyes of Odysseus.
There is a competition with Penelope. The only place left for Penelope is procreation. One the job
is done (Penelope has the baby) she is going to take care of the baby, take over the role of the
mother.
Penelope is comparing herself with Helen, she feels that she is better but even though she had a
son Odysseus is still thinking about Helen as his sexual fantasy. At the end of the day all the
women are presented as frustrated women. They want to get the attention of Odysseus, but he
ignores them.

10/11

CHAPTER X

22. How is the patriarchal fear for women reflected in the initial description of the womb?

“In his frail dark boat, the boat of himself, Through the dangerous ocean of his vast mother he
sailed”

Connection with the female body with the power, danger of the sea. Associated with maternity.
Dangerous dimension of maternity. Women presented as monsters. Represents the fear of men
as regards to maternity. Maternity has an impact on patriarchy.

He is fighting against his mother. Fragility of Telemachus as a child.

“Body of woman as a cave” -> Fear on the body of woman. Related to darkness.

“Then measured, and then cut short By the Three Fatal Sisters”-> weaving as destruction

Reinvented maternity, the system wants to redirect it, but women have much potential.

23. Analyze the contrast between Telemachus and the maids. What is the solution offered by
Atwood for women to overcome men’s oppression?

Reappropriate maternity. Join forces as women.

Through the turbulent seas of our swollen and sore-footed mothers Who were not royal queens,
but a motley and piebald collection, Bought, traded, captured, kidnapped from serfs and
strangers-> women as prisoners of the system. Stolen maternity and potential of it.

“After the nine-month voyage we came to shore, Beached at the same time as he was, struck by
the hostile air, Infants when he was an infant, wailing just as he wailed, Helpless as he was
helpless, but ten times more helpless as well, For his birth was longed-for and feasted, as our
births were not. His mother presented a princeling. Our various mothers Spawned merely,
lambed, farrowed, littered, Foaled, whelped and kittened, brooded, hatched out their clutch.
We were animal young, to be disposed of at will, Sold, drowned in the well, traded, used,
discarded when bloomless. He was fathered; we simply appeared, Like the crocus, the rose, the
sparrows engendered in mud. Our lives were twisted in his life; we also were children When he
was a child, We were his pets and his toy things, mock sisters, his tiny companions. We grew as
he grew, laughed also, ran as he ran”-> emphasis of lack of equality btw Telemachus and the
maids which is determined by class status and gender. Animalization of the maids. He owns the
maids. Objectification of women.

We did not know as we played with him there in the sand On the beach of our rocky goat-island,
close by the harbor, That he was foredoomed to swell to our cold-eyed teenaged killer. If we
had known that, would we have drowned him back then? Young children are ruthless and
selfish: everyone wants to live. Twelve against one, he wouldn’t have stood a chance. Would
we? In only a minute, when nobody else was looking? Pushed his still-innocent child’s head
under the water with our own still-innocent childish nursemaid hands, And blamed it on waves.
Would we have had it in us? Ask the Three Sisters, spinning their blood-red mazes, Tangling the
lives of men and women together. Only they know how events might then have been altered.
Only they know our hearts. From us you will get no answer. -> A teenage killer. Presentation of
women joining forces. Maids remain together. Union of women. They are against him. They will
change their fate.

The content of the genre is inverted. It is like an epic poem. A tragic denunciation of what happen
to them.

24. Several ideas presented before are developed in this chapter: separation of gender spheres,
men’s brotherhood vs. women’s rivalry. Explain.

Separation of gender spheres: Penelope is left in a domestic environment while Odysseus is on a

mission. Men are supposed to be in control of the state and women are supposed to stay at
home. However, Penelope remains as the protagonist of the Yellow Wallpaper, she is inside the
home but she is not given any role. Lack of authority.

“As he was listening to this account, Odysseus went white, though he remained silent. That
night, however, he revealed to me the cause of his distress. ‘We’ve all sworn an oath,’ he said.
‘We swore it on the parts of a cut-up sacred horse, so it’s a powerful one. Every man who swore
it will now be called on to defend the rights of Menelaus, and sail off to Troy, and wage war to
get Helen back.’ He said it wouldn’t be easy: Troy was a great power, a much harder nut to crack
than Athens had been when Helen’s brothers had devastated it for the same reason.”-> Sense of
connection of brothers in context of war. Union of women to get Helen back. Helen is something to
be possessed. There is the concept of homosociety: men joining forces together in order to
maintain patriarchy. Men join forces together and women are not allowed of anything.

This bedpost of his was a great secret: no one knew about it except Odysseus himself, and my
maid Actoris – but she was dead now – and myself. If the word got around about his post, said
Odysseus in a mock-sinister manner, he would know I’d been sleeping with some other man,
and then – he said, frowning at me in what was supposed to be a playful way – he would be very
cross indeed, and he would have to chop me into little pieces with his sword or hang me from
the roof beam. I pretended to be frightened, and said I would never, never think of betraying his
big post. Actually, I really was frightened. -> There is a separation of gender fears. Men's
preoccupation is just sleeping with women and 'winning' as many women as they can, while
Penelope’s fear is to be killed. There is a sexual secret between Odysseus and Penelope. He uses
this secret to control her and to find any infidelity.

25. This chapter shows Penelope’s continuation of Odysseus’s patriarchal role out of necessity,
but she clearly becomes a female continuator of that system. How?

I had such a clear picture in my mind – Odysseus returning, and me – with womanly modesty –
revealing to him how well I had done at what was usually considered a man’s business. On his
behalf, of course. Always for him. How his face would shine with pleasure! How pleased he
would be with me! ‘You’re worth a thousand Helens,’ he would say. Wouldn’t he? And then he’d
clasp me tenderly in his arm-> Penelope is forced to enter the political sphere. Women are not
supposed to be part men’s business and when she does it, she expects the man to be proud of her
but she should be proud of herself. She is just an instrument for her.

Through my steward I traded for supplies, and soon had a reputation as a smart bargainer.
Through my foreman I oversaw the farms and the flocks, and made a point of learning about
such things as lambing and calving, and how to keep a sow from eating her farrow. As I gained
expertise, I came to enjoy the conversations about such uncouth and dirty matters. It was a
source of pride to me when my swineherd would come to me for advice. ->she learns everything
so being a woman is not a limitation. She needs to reassure herself. Women are not allowed to
perform things in public. Ella se compara todo el tiempo con Helen, que es lo que el patriarcado
quiere, buscar esa rivalidad entre mujeres.

But her exhortations must have had some effect, because during the daytimes I managed to
keep up the appearance of cheerfulness and hope, if not for myself, at least for Telemachus. I’d
tell him stories of Odysseus – what a fine warrior he was, how clever, how handsome, and how
wonderful everything would be once he got home again-> She is the first one perpetuating the
myth of Odysseus to her own child. Odysseus is presented as a hero. She is presented as a
continuator of patriarchy.

CHAPTER XIII: telling Odysseus's adventures in a theatrical way performing men's roles.

26. What is the link between the maids and Odysseus’s sailors? Explain the choice of the song

The maids perform the role of sailors. Odysseus's way of treating the sailors, they can be replaced,
similar with Penelope and the maids. The sailors and the maids are instrumental. They are even
disposable for the success of the heroes: Penelope and Odysseus. Ya no es cuestión de géneros la
lucha, si no de clases.

CHAPTER XIV

27. The suitors’ real intention with Penelope is revealed. How do they reflect patriarchal
brotherhood and the commodification of women? Suitors wanted Penelope for economical
reasons, they only want her kingdom. They pressure Penelope to choose a man. They want to kill
her after marrying her in order to get the kingdom. Also, they will share the wealth between them.
Idea of homosociety.

She is old, they have no interest on her.

Page 55. “That’s everyone…to gluttonous neck”-> Everything is superficial. Murderous intention.
Helen as weapon to make Penelope feel bad.

“We’re all in this together, do or die”-> men join forces to keep patriarchy. Patriarchal pact.

12/11

28. At the end of the chapter Penelope is described as a spider and men as flies. Justify
Penelope’s strategy in weaving the shroud and her secret attack to patriarchy (study the
symbolism of the shroud)

Penelope is presented as the potential to kill the patriarchal figure.

“I kept trying to think of a way to postpone the day of decision, without reproach to myself.
Finally, a scheme occurred to me. When telling the story later I used to say that it was Pallas
Athene, goddess of weaving, who’d given me this idea, and perhaps this was true, for all I know;
but crediting some god for one’s inspirations was always a good way to avoid accusations of
pride should the scheme succeed, as well as the blame if it did not. Here is what I did. I set up a
large piece of weaving on my loom, and said it was a shroud for my father-in-law, Laertes, since
it would be impious of me not to provide a costly winding sheet for him in the event that he
should die. Not until this sacred work was finished could I even think of choosing a new
husband, but once it was completed, I would speedily select the lucky man.”-> Penelope is
clever, and she finds the way to postpone the day of the decision by weaving for Laertes. She is
strategic. She uses indirectly one of the shooters to kill her father-in-law. Weaving as a weapon of
destruction.

Page 62. From..”They were…not of my own accord”->

Page 63 “Never mind…not that whole charade”->

“The shroud itself became a story almost instantly. ‘Penelope’s web,’ it was called; people used
to say that of any task that remained mysteriously unfinished. I did not appreciate the term
web. If the shroud was a web, then I was the spider. But I had not been attempting to catch men
like flies: on the contrary, I’d merely been trying to avoid entanglement myself”-> revealing part
of the story. Penelope looks innocent but behind the weaving there is a destructing intention. Two
views of the weaving. Weaving could be seen as something domestic given that Penelope uses it in
order to stay pure to Odysseus. On the other hand, it could be seen as a sexual symbol, Penelope
uses it as a way to attract men and have sex with them. Web as a way of manipulating.

There seems to be that there is a sense of sisterhood between the maid and Penelope. However, it
is fake. Penelope uses them. She has the chance to create a sisterhood but she only cares about
her. She was the reason of why the maids were killed and she knows it. Penelope is presented as a
spider who creates a strategy in order to survive.

CHAPTER XVI

What are Penelope’s ‘bad dreams’ and what do they say about her role in patriarchy?
Nightmares of Penelope: A monster eats Odysseus’ brains, attracted to sirens, he has sex with
goddesses and one is Helen and Penelope wakes up, signs of obsession and insecurity. The dream
is not that bad until Helen appears, she is obsessed

Explain the use of the ballad, the reference to dreamboats and the repetition of the adjective
‘golden’ in this chapter. Instead of a romantic genre that comes from ballads we get a sexual
poem. The topic of the poem is the dreams of the maids, in their dream they are free but when
they wake up, they realize that they are slaves again. Penelope’s dream is bad, but her real life is
good.

31. How is Telemachus’ masculinity asserted in this chapter and secured by women: He speaks
with authority. He is boasting. He is not dependent of a woman. The figure of his father is the most
important one despite not knowing him. Odysseus is a patriarchal figure in the family even in his
absence. He pumps her in with stereotypes of women in general. p.128. He treated maids as toys
as well

“Then the maids would giggle, and heap his plate, and tell him what a fine boy he was.” ->
women contribute to his masculinity.

 For him is more important the homosexual connection than the connection with his
family.

Penelope pushes her own narrative and only asks about how she looks because he starts talking
about how nice Helen treated him. Telemachus knows the obsession Penelope with Helen and he
contributes to the rivalry between both of them, women. Homosociety (connection with men) is
more important than family.

CHAPTER XIX

32. How does Penelope deconstruct the myth of the acquiescent woman in this chapter and
reveal her strategic side? When Odysseus arrives to Ithaca, he is dressed up as a beggar. Penelope
knows the truth; however, she pretends she doesn’t know anything and plays with him. She has
learnt to be a good liar as Odysseus is. She breaks all the credibility of the odyssey to create a
Penelope who knows all the plans. She says good things about him to the “beggar” in order to look
a good wife, strategic.

33. Justify the double interpretation of Penelope’s dream with the eagle and the geese. she
pretends to be really sad about it. She feels guilty about the maids being killed. Eagle is Odysseus
and the geese are the maids. Geese is a faithful community. She asks him to interpret her dreams.
She tells him that she has been excluded by the maids and that they have been rude about
Odysseus, that is Penelope’s strategy. They want the maids to be killed in order to look as the
innocent wife. The maids are victims of both Odysseus and Penelope.

34. Chapter xx anticipates the shocking discovery in Chapter xxi. Why? And yet, can the
discovery in Chapter xxi be taken of Penelope’s own narrative could be just as unreliable as
Homer’s granted? Penelope had affairs with men. It also shows how in Ancient Greece men were
seen as successful if they slept with other women but women were punished if doing so. Esta
novela parodia la Odiseo y parodia todo ese sentir serio y elegante de la literatura tradicional. Por
lo tanto,

There is the rumour that Penelope had affairs with men, she says that these rumours are fake,
however, she says that some of them are true, she plays with the readers. Penelope’s own
narrative could be just as unreliable as Homer’s.

In this chapter, the maids perform a play. The main characters are Penelope and Eurocleya. Maids
suggest the infidelity of Penelope. They also perform how Penelope planned their murder.
Penelope is presented as she wanted to save the system but this is for her own benefit. nos ofrece
dos perspectivas, la versión de Penélope y la voz de las doncellas. Pero ninguna es fiable, Penelope
is ureliable and the maids maybe are revenging their death. Este chapter es muy importante para
crear diferentes posiblidades en esta Odisea.

Discuss the importance of the body for women (even after death) and its link with gender issues.
Pay attention to the pervasive presence of corporeal references in this chapter

You cannot separate the physical shape of the genre, even after death, the body of a woman would
be sexualized.

“They have no need of baths.’ ‘Oh, but my reason for taking a bath was always spiritual,’ said
Helen, opening her lovely eyes very wide. ‘I found it so soothing”. Penelope meets with Helen.
Helen is going to take a bath, and Penelope thinks that they don’t need a bath, because they are
ghosts. This emphasizes that they can’t get rid of the body.

‘Oh, but my reason for taking a bath was always spiritual,’ said Helen, opening her lovely eyes
very wide. ‘I found it so soothing, in the midst of the turmoil. You wouldn’t have any idea of
how exhausting it is, having such vast numbers of men quarrelling over you, year after year.
Divine beauty is such a burden. At least you’ve been spared that! -> Ironic commentaries of
Helen implies a lot of sexualization: she likes men looking at her. The shooters fought for Penelope
but for the money she has. Penelope had sex with the shooters. Sexualization of Penelope and
Helen commentaries are very ironic because of this sexualization. Even though they are death the
body never disappears. There is a gender dimension that never disappears after death. There is no
evidence of Helen having sex. Reversed roles. Penelope is not that different from Helen.

“We’re all aware of your legendary modesty, Penelope,’ she replied. ‘I’m sure if you ever were
to bathe you’d keep your own robes on, as I suppose you did in life.”-> irony it gaves a new
dimension with the irony.

‘Desire does not die with the body,’ said Helen. ‘Only the ability to satisfy it. But a glimpse or
two does perk them up, the poor lambs.’ ‘So you’re washing their blood off your hands,’ I said.
‘Figuratively speaking, of course. Making up for all those mangled corpses. I hadn’t realised you
were capable of guilt”-> playing with the reference of the body. Helen is not that rebellious and
Penelope is not that innocent and she was sexualized.

Ambiguity about the murder of the maids is served in this chapter. Why and what effect does it
have on the reader?

On the one hand the murder is attributed to men to denounce the violence the maids suffer and
the oppression of women. On the other hand, Penelope suggests that Eurycea could also be the
killer (although the title of the chapter says the contrary) suggesting that rivalry between women
that leads to the lack of sorority. Penelope has her reasons of having the maid death because she
keeps the image of innocent wife.

“There could be a more sinister explanation. What if Eurycleia was aware of my agreement with
the maids – of their spying on the Suitors for me, of my orders to them to behave rebelliously?
What if she singled them out and had them killed out of resentment at being excluded and the
desire to retain her inside position with Odysseus?”-> She says that she slept during the slaughter
probably because Eurykleia did something to her drink. Hence, she makes herself look a bit less
guilty for not having defended the maids. And when at the end she explains that Eurykleia might
have exposed the maids because of jealousy, she is again trying to take less responsibility for what
happened to the 12 maids. Penelope is very manipulative and then suddenly that possibility is
diminished with the presence of Eurykleia. She is exposing Eurykleia. She betrays everybody, the
maids to maintain her position as pure wife and also Eurykleia.

So I’ll never know. -> no one will know because the objective was destroying the myth of
Penelope and the maids

38. Justify the use of ‘an Anthropology lecture’ and feminist discourse in this chapter.

It is useful because it gives authority to what they are saying, this is an argument based on
research not just random hypotheses. It is a feminist discourse because it deconstructs the epic
narration of the events and opens a new approach in which the figures of women are the key and
central element. it makes them more valuable and reliable than before.
The maids introduce a masculinized gender in order to look rational. From a historical perspective,
they tell their murder. There is a contrast between the objective perspective of the maids and the
manipulative perspective of Penelope. The maids are the ones who give credibility.

Este capítulo rompe el tono de la novela, introducen un género claramente masculinizado, la

academia el mundo racional de la academia. Desde una perspectiva histórica cuentan el asesinato
de las doncellas. Contrastando perspectiva objetiva atribuida a las doncellas y la manipulación de
Penélope. Ahora son las doncellas las que nos dan una perspectiva histórica. Ellas son las que dan
credibilidad, no Penélope.

No, Sir, we deny that this theory is merely unfounded feminist claptrap. We can understand
your reluctance to have such things brought out into the open – rapes and murders are not
pleasant subjects – but such overthrows most certainly took place all around the Mediterranean
Sea, as excavations at prehistoric sites have demonstrated over and over-> un hombre cuestiona
la veracidad de este discurso de las doncellas, aunque este asociado a una conferencia de
astrologia.

39. Explain the symbolism of the maids.

What is it that our number, the number of the maids – the number twelve – suggests to the
educated mind? There are twelve apostles, there are twelve days of Christmas, yes, but there
are twelve months, and what does the word month suggest to the educated mind? Yes? You, Sir,
in the back? Correct!-> anne sexton's in celebration of my uterus. Kind of rivalry btw women.
Case with Penelope and the maids. Suggestion that Penelope becomes the Judas. She is not
thinking about brotherhood. The number twelve resonated with Greek chorus in opposition with
Penelope who is trying to seem victim

The number twelve is the reference to the Greek chorus connecting with literature, presenting a
group of women. In order to make the presence of maids more powerful. On the other hand, it is a
way to emphasizes the parallelism with bible and apostles and Jesus Christ. Penelope would be
Jesus Chris became she becomes the judas, betrayer. This is an example of the ideological state
apparatuses.

Never mind. Point being that you don’t have to get too worked up about us, dear educated
minds. You don’t have to think of us as real girls, real flesh and blood, real pain, real injustice.
That might be too upsetting. Just discard the sordid part. Consider us pure symbol. We’re no
more real than money-> Paradoxical state of the maids. They are symbols they represent every
woman that has been abused, killed in a patriarchal society in history. On the other hand, they are
not only symbol, they have been women that have been abused. How real is money? They are
symbol as money but at the same time they represent REAL women.

40. After reading this chapter, how reliable is the Odyssey?

Both Odysseus and Penelope are fake characters. We know the strategy of Penelope of moving
the bed to tease her husband and see if it was the real Odysseus and we know that both of them
are really good liars (they lie about their feelings, about their trips…)

“Then he told me how much he’d missed me, and how he’d been filled with longing for me even
when enfolded in the white arms of goddesses; and I told him how very many tears I’d shed
while waiting twenty years for his return, and how tediously faithful I’d been, and how I would
never have even so much as thought of betraying his gigantic bed with its wondrous bedpost by
sleeping in it with any other man.”->They are acting with each other. Their feelings are not real.
Credibility of the story Is put into question.

How does the format of the trial support patriarchal superiority? How are the maids portrayed
as a haunting presence for Odysseus in these four concluding chapters?

In the trial, the maids become the judge victims who are not given credibility. Odysseus is being
judged for abusing the maids and the judge instead of supporting them look for stupid
argumentations. Justice is manipulated by the patriarchal system. He's like mocking them as the
stereotype of the hysterical woman. They are resting importance to their situation. They are
judging their clothes…

Maids are dressed up in the same way they were killed. It is an evidence but the judge ignores
them. They want justice. In order to defend Odysseus, they use the Odyssey, this book promoted
men’s values and patriarchy and women are presented as animals.

It’s that they were raped without permission. ->

She is like it was going to happen sooner or later (the rape), Penelope is like justifying the
rape. Neither did your client, evidently. (Chuckles.) However, your client’s times were not our
times. Standards of behavior were different then. It would be unfortunate if this regrettable but
minor incident were allowed to stand as a blot on an otherwise exceedingly distinguished
career. Also, I do not wish to be guilty of an anachronism. Therefore, I must dismiss the case->
He is not even conscious that he is committing an anacronym. He is being anachronistic.

MAIDS

I think it's curious to see how the judge considers the maids as hysterical, but in the last paragraph
at the end of the chapter it seems like he is the one who has gone crazy when women join forces.

‘Why can’t you leave him alone?’ I yell at the maids. I have to yell because they won’t let me get
near them. ‘Surely it’s enough! He did penance, he said the prayers, he got himself purified. It’s
not enough for us,’ they call. ‘What more do you want from him?’ I ask them. By this time, I’m
crying. ‘Just tell me!’ But they only run away. Run isn’t quite accurate. Their legs don’t move.
Their still-twitching feet don’t touch the ground. -> the maids represent a haunting presence in
the sense that they represent all innocent women (from around the world) who have been killed
by men or have had the same situation. They will haunt Odysseus, they are spirits and Odysseus
can’t get rid of them: union of women. They are stronger now. Odysseus is scared.

01/12

I’ve never met, or personally known, anyone who was blind. This blind man was late forties, a
heavy-set, balding man with stooped shoulders, as if he carried a great weight there. He wore
brown slacks, brown shoes, a light-brown shirt, a tie, a sports coat. Spiffy. He also had this full
beard. But he didn’t use a cane and he didn’t wear dark glasses. I’d always thought dark glasses
were a must for the blind. Fact was, I wish he had a pair. At first glance, his eyes looked like
anyone else’s eyes. But if you looked close, there was something different about them. Too
much white in the iris, for one thing, and the pupils seemed to move around in the sockets
without his knowing it or being able to stop it. Creepy. As I stared at his face, I saw the left pupil
turn in toward his nose while the other made an effort to keep in one place. But it was only an
effort, for that one eye was on the roam without his knowing it or wanting it to be.->. Negative
image of blind man. He is also being Ironic, calling him spiffy. Reference about the eyes of the man,
it is connected with the notion of abjection as something you don’t want to confront because it
destabilizes your rationality and sense of comfort.

I started to say something about the old sofa. I’d liked that old sofa. But I didn’t say anything.
We finished everything, including half a strawberry pie. For a few moments, we sat as if
stunned. Swear beaded on our faces. Finally, we got up from the table and left the dirty plates.
We didn’t look back. We took ourselves into the living room and sank into our places again.
Robert and my wife sat on the sofa. I took the big chair. We had us two or three more drinks
while they talked about the major things that had come to pass for them in the past ten years.
For the most part, I just listened. Now and then I joined in. I didn’t want him to think I’d left the
room, and I didn’t want her to think I was feeling left out. They talked of things that had
happened to them—to them!—these past ten years. I waited in vain to hear my name on my
wife’s sweet lips: “And then my dear husband came into my life”—something like that. But I
heard nothing of the sort. More talk of Robert. Robert had done a little of everything, it seemed,
a regular blind jack-of-all-trades -> Symbolism of the sofa. The old sofa is the old type of
masculinity. In the new sofa there is a sense of openness. It is no longer a protective ‘place. tt is a
place you have to open yourself. Symbol of new values and communication. “Regular blindness”->
potential of Robert in contrast of the negativity of the husband. Escapist attitude of the protagonist.

4. Analyze the love triangle scene prior to the climax in the story (pages 7-9).

I wished my wife hadn’t pooped out. Her head lay across the back of the sofa, her mouth
open. She’d turned so that he robe had slipped away from her legs, exposing a juicy thigh. I
reached to draw her robe back over her, and it was then that I glanced at the blind man.
What the hell! I flipped the robe open again.-> Moment of jealousy related to sexuality. He
covers the wife because there is a moment of superiority because he thinks that the only
erotical connection would be if the blind sees her. he doesn't think that they will connect each
other by just emotions. Kinky power of the husband, confrontation of masculinity, competition
for women.
 Bub, it’s all right,” the blind man said. “It’s fine with me. Whatever you want to watch is
okay. I’m always learning something. Learning never ends. It won’t hurt me to learn
something tonight. I got ears,” he said. ->. He wants to learn. He is open to learn.
Transcendence is a step forward in communication opposition to immanence. The blind man
sympathizes

RAYMOND CARVER

CATHEDRAL

1. Make a list of the similarities and differences between Lawrence’s ‘Blind Man’ and
Carver’s version. In what way do they offer a different depiction of masculinity? (pay
special attention to the type of narrator and the lack of proper names in Carver’s story)
Blindness in both stories: emasculation. Blindness is perceived as a threat in this story.
Performance of masculinity leads to lack of communication with women, woman has a
special connection with the bling man because he doesn’t present hegemonic masculinity.
Derrida “Politics of friendship” – difference friend vs. parasite. Husband perceive the
friend as a parasite, an enemy threatening his house.
There’s no homoeroticism in this story. Blind man for the husband represents an
emasculated version of masculinity. Perceives the bling man as an inferior type of
masculinity (internal hegemony by Demetriou). Blindness is a threat to hegemonic
masculinity, like in “The Blind Man”.
Love triangle in both stories.
3rdt person narration (the husband, Maurice, in the Blind Man ), 1 st person narration (the
husband, in Cathedral).
One is America (contemporary), the other is England (WWI)
Colloquial language in contrast with The Blind Man (formal).
We do not know the names of the wife and husband. Reference to Robert ‘blind
man’ all the time, emphasises his flaw (the only one his name is referred to, only in
dialogues). No names to emphasise this situation can be applied to everybody.
Narrator husband decides to call his wife ‘my woman, my wife’ ‘the blind man’,
expressed his masculinity and power (women as possession), reveal prejudices of
the character. External hegemony towards his wife (emphasizes his superiority
with the woman), internal hegemony (uses “blind man” to reassure himself, he is
“above him”).
2 clear heterosexual figures, unlike in “The Blind Man” (where there’s a shadow of
homosexuality) to explore a type of masculinity that does not connect with
homoerotism. They can connect physically and emotionally without the shadow of
homosexuality.
Blind man inspires people to do something creative (he makes the woman feel the
need to write a poem; in the husband, he draws the cathedral)
 Get rid of that biologist dimension of the blind man, not need connection of
nature, it can lead to a misconstruction of masculinity. Robert connected with the
intellectual.
2. The story begins by presenting a very interesting contrast between two types of men:
the wife’s former fiancé and Robert. Explain in relation to masculinity types.
The fiancé hegemonic masculinity, officers’ training school, like a military
background. She did not like it. She does not like the military hegemonic type of
masculinity. She likes the one represented by the blind man- In “The Blind Man”,
Isabel was totally attracted to this animalized masculinity. Not typical hegemonic
masculinity because of his blindness. He is a sentimental man able to express his
feelings, use of the touch totally different sense of the connection. He likes poetry
while the husband does not care about literature, blind man very intellectual. The
way how men understand how to create relations. ‘she told him everything’ clear
evidence of that connection of both characters which she does not have with her
husband. This masculinity is the one with the potential to create a bond between
men and women.
3. Immanence is the opposite to transcendence: an ontological position that means
‘existing or remaining within, self-enclosed, not open’. This is the narrator’s position in
the first part of the story. How is his immanence reflected mainly in relation to the blind
man but also in relation to marginal groups in general? Look for evidence.
Immanence narrator’s position in the first part of the story vs transcendence.
Connected with the idea off alterity, immanence not open, not connect in order to
protect yourself. Transcendence connect to other. Example blind man, he does not
want to connect with the blind man because it is a threat for him. He creates a
kind of stereotype of blind men, prejudiced knowledge. The real blind character is
the husband. The knowledge he has about blind men is based on misconceptions,
based on movies he has seen (ideological state apparatuses, the media). Media
creates knowledge for hegemonic masculinity, manipulative sources (blind people
as alterity, not the majority of the community, they are rejected and stereotyped.

Exposure when the blind man comes to the house, even if he does not want to he
is exposed. Main indications of that immanence are the prejudices. He just has a
third person information, not even for himself, media example of imposition of
information. Information totally bias, not our own discovery. Information about
blind people totally bias, create stereotypes ‘’blind people did not smoke because
they could not see the smoke they exhaled’’. ‘‘I heard my own name in the mouth
of this stranger, this blindman I didn’t even know!’’ importance of language, not
only reflect reality but creates reality, by using the name invasion of his identity.
 ‘’My house’’ immanence broken by the blind man, use of the possessive ‘’my
name’’ connected with the sense of immanence. He is being racist with the blind
man’s wife: Beulah. She tries to justify the immanence of his husband.
Confrontation of identities, masculinities. How he confronts Robert? He is making
fun of the blind man in order to assert his masculinity as superior. Big mock of the
marriage between Beulah and Robert. He does not understand connection with a
woman beyond physical. Perception of a woman for him as an aesthetic object. He
does not understand the couple, he finds it pathetic while for the wife is a moral to
follow, real connection between Beulah and Robert. ‘’godamn woman’’ irreverent,
refences to the woman totally physical ‘make up’, old fashion masculinity, sexist.
Disrespectful to the blind man. ‘’A beard on a blind man!’’ prejudices. His wife uses
the name Robert, but he changes to ‘blind man’ in his narration. Physical
description of the blind man: ‘’creepy’’ abjection, something, a reality you do not
want to confront because is unpleasant, destabilize his normal life, identity.
Description of the eyes – abjection (Kristeva); a reality you don’t want to confront
because it destabilizes your area of comfort.

Symbolism of the sofa as a new sofa:

Old sofa old type of masculinity, that is why he is nostalgic, he feels attached. The
outcome of the story happens in the new sofa. ‘I’d liked that old sofa’. He feels
excluded in the conversation, mainly talking the wife and Robert. Now he feels the
blind man is a real threat. Necessity of connect with the wife. It does not happen
because they develop a real conversation. The new sofa the one who allows this
conversation. The new sofa is communication, beyond the old models of
possession. The new values, the new man coming to the house.
4. Analyze the love triangle scene prior to the climax in the story (pages 7-9)
The rob of the wife slips open, the first reaction of the husband is jealousy but
when he realizes the blindness of the man, he leaves her uncovered. He thinks that
the only erotic connection would be if the blind man sees her. He realizes that the
wife and the blind man connect emotionally, but physically he is the only one who
can connect with him. Exercise of control and power that the husband wants to
exert on the wife and the blind man.
“Her pink robe and her pink slippers’’, She is not flirting, she is comfortable in that
situation. Colour associated with femininity in women. Not only story about men,
also understanding women in that position, how femininity deconstructed in the
context of masculinity.
‘’My wife and I hardly ever went to bed at the same time’’ there is no
communication between them.
 “I’m always learning something” – the blind man – totally opposed attitude to the
husband’s. Transcendence, he wants to learn (what the husband will have to learn
at the end of the story). Transcendence is a step forward in communication.
5. Explain the symbolism of the cathedral (don’t forget to connect it with the symbol of the
house)
A religious building to approach the new masculinity. Very spiritual dimension
totally outplaces for the protagonist. Beyond the superficial aspects. May
represent the new religion, what they are going to discover together.
representation of society of the cathedral, connection between all the generations
of men. Cathedral only a symbol constructed by men by joining forces not for the
control, but to connect, homosexuality from a spiritual perspective not
instrumental. The protagonist does not believe, unreligious. Lack of spirituality ‘’I
reached for my glass, but it was empty’’. He is just superficial. With the help of the
blind man is going to fill the glass of that bondage through the cathedral. The first
things he draws is the thing he knows, his immanence. By the touching, implies
creativity. ‘’you’ll see’’ with his eyes closed he can see as the blind man. The
narrator became the blind man and Robert the visionary character of the story
even if he cannot see. Narrator carried away and his creativity flourished. New
discovery ‘’It was like nothing else in my life up to now’’. Ending: ‘But I didn’t feel
like I was inside anything’’. Immanence (house) vs transcendence (cathedral)
Transcendental, house not like an enclosed place, he is connected for first time,
connected with the alterity represented by the blind man, discovery he has never
had before. From being a house to be a cathedral. The pen they use to draw
belongs to the wife. The two men are connecting, and the wife is sleeping, but the
woman is not excluded because they use the wife’s pen. We cannot ignore women
in masculinities. Masculinity has an effect in women as well, after this moment the
relation between him and his wife will probably change. Communication. More
efficient for women as well, not unbalanced identities. Alternative religion. They
need to collaborate to keep that immanence of the house. The cathedral implies a
communication of men.
The woman is not present but she is instrumental she is necessary to the dimension of the
cathedral and in carver’s story the cat is not allowed, in this story there is no preference
towards any masculinity, here the woman bonds both men. Different approach.

“He found my hand, the hand with the pen. He closed his hand over my hand. “Go ahead,
bub, draw,” he said. “Draw. You’ll see. I’ll follow along with you. It’ll be okay. Just begin
now like I’m telling you. You’ll see. Draw,” the blind man said. So I began. First I drew a box
that looked like a hose. It could have been the house I lived in. Then I put a roof on it. At
either end of the roof, I drew spires. Crazy.”
 “Keep them that way,” he said. He said, “Don’t stop now. Draw.” So, we kept on with it.
His fingers rode my fingers as my hand went over the paper. It was like nothing else in my
life up to now. Then he said, “I think that’s it. I think you got it,” he said. “Take a look.
What do you think?” But I had my eyes closed. I thought I’d keep them that way for a little
longer. I thought it was something I ought to do. “Well?” he said. “Are you looking?” My
eyes were still closed. I was in my house. I knew that. But I didn’t feel like I was inside
anything. “It’s really something,” I said.”

NOTION OF IMMANENCE: The narrator learns that one can "see without seeing". They
revert this power relationship. Blind man is very generous and it helps Maurice. It is shown
his creativity not possession. How does he break immanence in the story? He is not longer
enclosed on his masculinity (house), instead he connects. He leads to creativity. The blind
man hasn’t strong physical appearance but he is still capable of making an impact on
Maurice. The blind man who was supposed to be inferior, takes the lead over the
husband. There is a hierarchy. The blind man becomes a guide to the metaphorically blind
narrator.

6. After the analysis of the story, summarize the difference of Lawrence’s and Carver’s
stories as regards masculinity.

AN IDEAL FAMILY

Being old leads to lacks of power in this sense of masculinity. He is going to be replaced by his
own son, representing the new generations of masculinity. Men as victims of patriarchal
masculinity. He also realizes that everything he worked for is worthless, because he missed the
most important parts of his life because he had to play the role that society gave him.

Role of women in masculinity: Women are at home, men provide for them, and they replace the
older man for his son who is much younger. They sustain masculinity at home.

Emasculation: he feels a stranger in the house>women controlling everything at home and he

feels powerless.

They are depicted as frivolous. Mr. Neave says that they are too rich for him.

Homosexuality between them, men. It is a strategy to keep Mr. Neave out of them. Women are
enemies.

Batalla con su propio hijo que el es eliminado, el percibe a las mujeres como un grupo
estratégico para quitarlo a el de en medio. Entonces es una frustración por parte del
protagonista y el percibe a sus familiares como enemigos, que quieren destruir su figura
patriarcal.
KATHERINE MANSFIELD

QUESTION 1:

Men are victimized, both Mr Neave and Harold. Dichotomy between inside outside, Mr
Neave wants to be still the bread winner, but he is too old, so his family told him to rest
and quit his job. He is detached or marginalize from his family while Harold is the spoilt
kid. The image is that his family is perfect, they have money and a good house, but he is
the only one who does not enjoy. The theme of trust is important, Mr Neave does not
trust his son. Different masculinities. Harold is too handsome to be a man, he does not
trust him because he is not mainly like him.

QUESTION 2:

Lack of the name of the protagonist, sense of distance. Sense of trust. Sense of authority
for saying Mr Neave instead of the name. Also, to emphasises his position in his family,
patriarchal family. He is scared of not having a function in the family, if he is not the bread
winner he is nothing, he does not have hobbies, he just works. When there are having
dinner, his family forgot him. He was not sitting in the center, the one who is in the centre
is the mom. Sense of anxiety because he is not that young, dream. Dream projection, he
should be answering his family, but the family is the one answering.

QUESTION 3:

Seasons- Spring. Normally spring related to young, awakening, love, happiness… what is
old is replaced by the new. He is experiencing the spring, he does not luck it because of his
age and attitude as well. He does not have energy. Sense confusion, he knows he should
response to this positively, but he does not do it. The fact that his enemy is the season of
spring, when everything "comes back to life", is a contrast that shows how powerless he is
against the passage of time.

Stick- He is using the stick because he has problems to walk because of his age, weaker.
Sign of his oldness. Also, as a sign of his mood. Harold stole his mom purse and put it in
the cook’s bedroom, sense of he did not want to be guilty, putting the guilt on somebody
else. Mr. Neave thought about the implication of Harold’s action. The stick: it is something
commonly used by old people to walk. Hence, something that represents old age is used
to move away the spring which means vitality and renewal, something that he is not
compatible with. Harold is not like Neave; he is not as manly as Neave is. Harold is related
to androgyny. La descripción no deja de estar filtrada por míster nave lo q esta haciendo
es romper el estereotipo de masculinidad de Harold para demostrar que no es el modelo
de masculinidad. De hecho, intenta decir que él no tiene valores. Tradition implies that
sons have to replace fathers.

Ethnity between men He is replaced and the feeling he has is that his sons is insensitive
about this situation.

Spider- spider in order to survive creates a web. Restless of the spider dichotomy,
pressure of the family because he is going to be retired. He wants to be restless, but he
cannot because he is trap in the society, pressure of the family on him. Without him, they
would be lost. Sense of being strange from the family, connection with the family. His
connection in danger, he is not able to make it (web) because he is old without energy.

Mr neave-> HE'S NAIVE IF HE THINKS THT HE IS ALWAYS GOING TO CONTROL

EVERYTHING AS A PÀTRIARCHAL FIGURE

The spider tries to survive by creating a web. Mr. Neave has the pressure of the family
given that he is going to be retired and he tries to make the web to survive but he is old
and he doesn’t have energy

Conversation of superficial things, like a dress. It is implied that they can buy those
because Mr. Neave pays for them, but he is not relevant in the house.

…..”As if he were walking through air that had somehow grown heavy and solid like water”-> old
age. Water gives more resistance to movement. it is hard for him to live, basically even air is
annoying for him. Air was invisible now becomes visible.

“Here's this huge house and garden. Surely you could be happy in appreciating it for a change”->
House and garden becomes the place for women, and because you are no longer the patriarchal
figure you are going to take care of the house.

"You're an ideal family, sir, an ideal family. It's like something one reads about or sees on the
stage."-> totally ironic, they are not perfect. They do not care about each other; they do not have a
connection with Mr. Neave. He does not even seem like a part of the family

Her cheeks were crimson from playing, her eyes glitt And she breathed as though she had come
running through the dark and was frightened. Old Mr. Neave stared at his youngest daughter; he
felt he had never seen her before. So that was Lola, was it? But she seemed to hav she was waiting
there. Now she put the tip of her crumpled handkerchief between her teeth and tugged at it
angrily. The telephone rang. A dashed past him. The door of the te Charlotte called, "Is that you,
father?"->he is a total stranger at home,

"Children, children?" coaxed Charlotte. But Marion wouldn't be stopped-> Father is treated as a
child he is not only emasculated but also infantilized
Old Mr. Neave, forgotten, sank into the broad lap of his chair, and, dozing, heard them as though
he dreamed. There was no doubt about it, he was tired out; he had lost his hold. Even Charlotte
and the girls we all his drowsing brain could think of was of everything he was watching a little
withered ancient man climbing up endless flights of stairs. Who was he?-> stairs-> social Ladder he
has to climb up para ser la figura patriarcal que tiene que ser. Reference to Sisyphus persistence
of the old man to stay relevant maybe

Page 5-> ending of the story

QUESTION 4:

‘An ideal family’- totally ironic, they are not perfect. They do not care about each other;
they do not have a connection with Mr. Neave. He does not even seem like a part of the
family. Author is speaking about the concept of ‘an ideal family’ in general, not only about
this one. There is not an ideal family in real life, all are different, and all have problems.

QUESTION 5:

Rip Van Winkle, he came back to his village after a long time of period. He is in a new
reality, he is old, his wife is gone but he accepted and starts living in that reality. The
daughter takes care of him now, sense of nurture. Sense of reconnecting about that lapse,
slumber. Charles is the one who says, ‘you have an ideal family’. In the dream, it is similar
to Rip Van winkle because he wakes up (in the dream) and he is older, and he does not
even recognise his family, not even the voice of his wife. Mr. Neave does not recognise
Lola, he realises she is not anymore, a kid. He sees his wife as a girl ‘that little pale girl’,
lack of connection. He remembers how close they were when they were young, not that
connection is lost. No longer intimate relation with his wife. His wife is more in the
domestic sphere and he is in the working sphere. All attention has gone into social events
or attending Harold.

Rip Van Winkle was in a new reality, he is old and his wife is gone and he starts to live a
new reality, he wakes up and he doesn’t even recognize his family , the same happens
with mr neave that doesn’t recognize Lola

Possesion of the wife by Neave

QUESTION 6:

Position of the women in the story, secondary but essential to understand the story. They
support the patriarchal family because they just want to stay at home and the father is the
one supporting the family. Younger generation are resistant to get married because they
are comfortable in the position they have. They do not want to be a wife, enjoying
privileges for being just daughters, they do not want their own domestic sphere.
Superficiality in the patriarchal system.

QUEER THEORY
We talked about positions, not identities.

ORIGIN:

(non) heteronormativity. Sexual identities. In 1990’s: Teresa de Lauretis, Judith Butler (big
name, queer identity always performative), Eve Sedgwick. Influences: Anzaldúa
(lesbianism and ethnicity), Rich (literary application lesbian figure), Fuss, Berlant.

Theoretically speaking is the deconstruction idea of being queer, what is an identity. How
to question the heterosexual matters.

Origin of the term: ‘quer’ German word that means something weird, strange. Sexual
deviation later. In the 20century to refer to a feminine man, and now a total
reappropiation of the word to make it positive. ‘third sex’ (Karl Ulrich), complex word, idea
of emphasis this gender ambiguity, very derogative connotation. Definition: It is an
identity, position against the normality (heteronormativity).

HISTORY:

Word ‘homosexuality’ first time used by Karoly Maria Benkert, 1869, connotation to the
medical discourse. It is seemed to be a medical condition, mental condition.

‘Queer theory’ (De Lauretis, 1990). First used in a theoretical background, in a journal. But
she decided to abandon the use of this idea. The notion in the academia of the word is
even complicated.

Seminal works:

Halperin: One Hundred Years of Homosexuality (1989). Parody of the novel of Gabriel
Garcia Marquez. Presentation of the homosexuality that it has been there for a long time,
but it has been ignored. (invisibility of idea homosexuality) Isolation, closet.

Butler: Gender Trouble (1991)

Sedwick: Epistemology of the Closet, particularly Between Men: English Literature and
Male Homosocial Desire (1985). Homosocial opposed to homosexual. What she does even
though these identities are different, delicate line between them, she perceives a
vulnerability, homosexual panic.
Identity politics: Act up, outrage! Radical perspective, essential in order to create this
sense of queer identity.

CRITICAL TRENDS
RADICAL DECONTRUCTION

1.Tim Edward

2. Adam Green

3. Michael Warner

Foucault’s history of sexuality

ADRIENNE RICH

Compulsory heterosexuality and lesbian existence (1980). Give the possibility to women
whether they prefer the heterosexuality or nor, they need to explore. Imposed identity in
women. Lesbian continuum. For her, the myth of the vagina orgasm (women can only be
satisfied by the masculine member), demystified lots of myths about women. Reject the
term lesbianism and prefers the term of the lesbian existence, problem totally
invisibilised. Women can be totally lesbian but also be heterosexual but create a solidarity
with women that is not lesbian, gradation in the lesbian identity.

MONIQUE WITTIG

The Straight Mind (1978) relation lesbian theory, radical lesbian writer. Lesbian are not
women, for her women is a political category that implies this possession of human being
physical and moral intellectual way for the society. For her to become free is to be a
lesbian. Heterosexuality political regime.

WILSON AND FEDERMAN

Elizabeth Wilson: Gayness and Liberalism

Lillian Faderman: Surpassing Love of Men (1981)

When you perform a queer identity, you never escape from the heterosexual matter,
where you have a passive and active role, imitation of the heterosexual matters.

In contrast, BUTCH ROLE AS CHALLENGING:

-Smith- Rosenberg: Discourse of Sexuality and Subjectivity. The New Woman. (1985)
The imitation is not problematic, because they imitated but with a parodic intention,
empower them.

-Sue Ellen-Case: Towards a Butch-Femme aesthetics (1988)

-Teresa de Lauretis: Sexual indifference and lesbian representation (1988)

-Judith Butler: Imitation and Gender Insubordination (1991)

GAY MALE THEORY:

Mary Mckintosh: The homosexual role (1968) Connect gender with power and control.

Jeffrey Weeks: Sex, politics and society (1981)

Dennis Altman: The homosexualization of America (1982) Gay identity with political
dimension.

Guy Hocquenghem: Homosexual desire (1968), Addition presentation homosexuality

connected with abjection (something you try to reject because it destabilise your own
identity).

ADRIENNE RICH

‘THE FLOATING POEM, UNNUMBERED’ (1977)

QUESTION 1:

Context of nobility works as a context for problems, different relationships. Private story
contextualized in public atmosphere. Setting of Adrienne Rich is city, Manhattan. Image of the city
as a place where the speaker doesn’t want to be, corrupted place. The protagonist is not
presented as pornographic because it lacks any man element. The description reminds of a culture
that exploits people and there are advertisements all over the city, for example young people that
go to New York, or LA and end up entangled in those types of situations. And, it is not necessarily
pornography. New York is a place where anything can happen. We don’t see pornography in
patriarchal terms(?). Negative connotations of the place.

“No one has imagined us”-> invisibility of lesbian women

dappled with scars, still exuberantly budding, our animal passion rooted in the city”-> animal
instincts. Our passion as lesbians feels as animals. She wants to create a place where they don’t
have any limitations. Alternative place where they can be themselves. However, at the end they
have to come back to the horrible city because they have a political purpose with the city. They
have to belong to the civilization.
Sonnet sequence-> collection poems that develop a love story and they create a story line and
these poems are also numbers. They are related but they have sense also by their own, we
understand the theme if we just read one. Formally speaking, we don’t have sonnets also we don’t
have a rhyme scheme. However, when she speaks about the poems she speaks about sonnets
because it is related with a lesbian relationship, it is a sonnet that breaks with the tradition.
Normalizing her sexual orientation. I go back to that tradition; I revise and I introduce lesbianism
and she escapes from the formality of that tradition. Alternative type of love that breaks the
tradition. She doesn’t become the mainstream; she doesn’t follow the rules of that tradition.

Shakespeare – critics considered the love of the old man to the young man as father-son love, but
it is too sensorial for that. There’s invisibilization of homoerotic love.

She calls this collection a collection of sonnets. Differences and similarities. Big issue
between the problem with the individuality and social connection. Dangerous situation in
the conventional sonnet sequence. The city is the background of this poem, Manhattan.
Lack of connection between people, city as a jungle, ‘forest’, not friends. ‘’no one has
imagined us’’ invisibility of the lesbian women. Lesbian love not necessarily as a
construction. Presentation of poems important. All the poems are numbers, between
fourteen and fifteen, unnumbered poem. It is a way to show a particular dimension that
escape from the cannon, cannot be categorized in this cannon. Lesbian desire, it does not
follow a pattern of the system. It is resisted classification, because they will lose the force.
Formal structure of these poems: it changes from ten to twenty lines. It does not follow a
rhyme pattern, no rhyme, free verse. It does not follow the pattern of the sonnet. She
breaks it the pattern of the society but decides to call it sonnet in order to revendicate the
position of the lesbian in the cannon. In Shakespeare, he projects the sexual dimension of
the woman and the platonic love to the youth, young man. But he does not proper
indicate that idea, ambiguity. Barnfield, the only one who speaks about lesbianism that
are invisible. As a homosexual, they cannot be categorized because they lose the power.
In parenthesis, it has been margin but now it civilized.

[The Floating Poem, Unnumbered]

Why does she break with this sequence? Invisibility of queer relationship. Non-normative. When
you use parenthesis, you use information that is not necessary and she is using it in a parodic way.
It gets prominent. Suggestion that they are not relevant but by using this at the center, it is the
floating poem that gets all the attention. It started being something excluded and ended being
something exceptional.

Setting of the floating poem: In a forest. This connection of the characters happens in
nature. It is a way to escape from society, expectations and control, without judgment and
social limitations. Solipsism, love totally artificial. Here, tangible love, her love is not
platonic, totally physical, it feels real. Perfect atmosphere of this love affair.

Reference to Stonehenge: creating something new. Creating a new space for women. The
space she wants to create is on the mind. Something beyond physicality.

“I choose to be the figure in that light”-> Contrast between shadow and light-> she wants to be
in the light and not in the closet.

“I choose…I choose…”-> she has the agency to become the woman she wants.

Last stanza. This love finished at the end; they are separated. Tragic ending. ‘’this is not
Stonehenge simply nor any place’’ ‘I choose to walk here. And to draw this circle’’.
Stonehenge, could symbolize the beginning of the civilization, she wants to create a space,
not only for her but for women in general. Women are not stones, connection with the
moon. Woman in singular to make it extensive, female solidarity. Corporeal dimension,
emotional part. Beyond that corporeity, mind. Spirituality of women, connection of
women, lesbian continuum. Mental dimension. Create sisterhood that goes beyond
sexuality.

QUESTION 2:

Enjambments in the poem, to make the poem very fluid, naturality, even the movement
of the love making of the lovers. Clear cut ending of the artificial love, fluidity of the
movement of love making. ‘haunt’ infatuation of the lovers, totally attracted to each
other. Combination of enjambments and caesuras. Fluidity of love and passion. Obsession
with each other that is unstoppable.

QUESTION 3:

the innocence and wisdom of the placee my tongue has found there - the live, insatiate dance of
your nipples in my mouth - your touch on me, firm, protective, searching me out, your strong
tongue and slender fingers reaching where I had been waiting years for you in my rose-wet cave –
whatever happens, this is.

In the renaissance it was more about male pleasure that finally ''wins'' the woman, but here is the
emphasis of both of them desiring the encounter. Scopophilia: woman becomes the object.
However, here both of them act in the sexual action.

Blazon, fragmentation of the body. In Renaissance physical beauty of the lovers,

description of Stella even the Dark Lady, aesthetic objects, platonic love not
consummation of that connection. ‘your travelled, generous thighs’ reciprocity, instead
one of them becoming the static object, both of them static object of desire. Both are
them are the object and the agents, at the end both agents of desire. ‘your, mine’
exchange of pronouns. Use of adjectives: Focus word such as travelled, searching,
description is dynamic. Renaissance is static, movement, in this poem emphasizes this love
making love, dynamic. With the blazon, fragmentation of the lover, corporeal dimension
of the lady to be consumed (Renaissance). There is a blazon but reference to the whole
body, not only fragmentation, complexity of the body. Reference to the face: ‘which my
whole face has come and come’. For women, connected to each other, not just objects,
human being connecting to each other. Change of possessive pronouns.

QUESTION 4:

‘cave’ very positive description of the cave, as cozy. ‘wet’ act of love, homoeroticism,
physical reaction of the act of love making. ‘cave’ female genitals. Reference to a private
place. Reference of women in sexuality, has to remind secret, that is why it remains in the
dark. Women need to explore her sexuality with a man, that is why remains unexplored to
many women because they cannot explore it on their own, patriarchal. Women needs to
reexplore their own sexuality. Darkness of the cave as not having knowledge (Plato, just
suggestion). Women needs to have access to the knowledge and it stats from the inside,
the cave. Reconnection of their own inside, their own sexuality. (relation to the
celebration of my uterus). The cave could represent a form of a "personal shelter" in which we
hide our vulnerability from the rest of the world. This other person is special enough to be granted
access

QUESTION 5:

Alliteration ‘f’: Representation of the love making, the gasping of the lovers. Sensorial
dimension, sense of touch. In Renaissance the touch was always missing, was forbidden.
Other senses, hearing with the alliteration, musicality central in the poem, sound of the
lovers. ‘wet’ humidity, felt. Visual sense, reference to the sun, forests… Symbol of the
‘fern’ and ‘sun’. ‘Fern’ (helecho) wild setting but also a celebration of the act of love, not
that physicality but also more spiritual dimension. ‘sun’ personification, synaesthesia, and
also sun (fire) and washed (water) oxymoron. Combination of senses and oxymoron,
clearly a message because in somehow is connected with Virginia Wolf, is the light the
need to civilise that exploration, we have darkness but not it is time to move on and show
the light to the system. It has been silenced and wild, and now they have to finish it. Image
of the water connected with fluidity, female strategy by women, appropriate the image of
the sun (rational) connected with the fluidity of the lovers (washed). Appropriate a
masculine symbol and appropriate it. ‘I had been waiting years for you’ it could be
connected with the fairy tales, the princess waiting to be rescue for the prince, typical
representation of romantic love. Very complex poem, she is creating this duality of the
lovers, but she is defending the discovering of their own self, focusing on herself, using
these elements (the cave of Plato, the sun) and change them to create a woman who
discovers herself, and then she can connect with another woman. Creating something
new from the inside. Reference to the fairy tale, totally parodic, to refer to her own
discovering.

QUESTION 6:

The poem begins and ends with the same expression, ‘whatever happens, this is’.
Emphasize the lesbian love, self-acceptance. Reference to all these obstacles, not only it
has been invisible the lesbian love but also all the obstacles to uncivilized this love.
Circularity, not the lineal masculinity. This lesbian existence exits ‘this is’. Present tense,
we do not care about the past, future… carpe diem, the moment.

Sun washing-> related to the light. It sheds light into their relationship, literally and figuratively.
The light they have created with the visibility of the lesbian encounter.

17/12

ISHERWOOD

A SINGLE MAN (1964)

The novella is weird, George the protagonist is an English professor, context very
American. He lost his partner Jim. He is very critical about everything. The protagonist is
very alienated, alienation connected with the issue of gender. Big gender trauma. This
character is extremely round, complicated. Homoerotism is the base. Connect with the
loss of the lover with his own frustration. He tries to cope with the nature of living and his
inability to feel a sense of belonging or connection with those who surround him. He
suffers from depression since Jim dead

QUESTION 1: 1 Type of narrator and focalization in the novel.

Third person narrator, focalization (focus on one character). Novel focalization of George,
not omniscient then. Making up opinions, trying to guess what is going one, like George is
speaking himself but in third person. Perspective of George. A lot of comments in
parenthesis, external dimension of the reality that George experiences, inner thought of
George, very internal presentation of his ideas. Introspected novel.
Dorothy and Jim were together, they had an affair, it represents the betrayal of Jim. Image
of women become a strong element. George feels he had to survive in this jungle of
gender. Sense of competition as regards gender.

QUESTION 2: How is Lacan’s mirror stage presented at the beginning of the novel in the
description of George and his acquisition of (gender) identity? Study: • The use of
pronouns. • Althusser’s concepts of ‘interpellation’ and ‘misrecognition’. • The contrast
between (savage) nature (and Darwinism) and culture/appearances. • The contrast
between childhood innocence and adult maturity in the figure of the Nanny.

Lacan’s mirror stage, when you recognize yourself in a mirror, semiotic stage with the
mother and then mirror stage, very artificial image, you enter the symbolic, rationality.
Reference to the ‘creature’ ‘it’. Through the mirror stage you discover your real identity. We
have to abandon everything we are in order to fulfil society expectations. (symbolic stage)

All that fluidity that is part of the semiotic, the choice to experiment different identities and he has
to enter the symbolic stage to abandon all that multiplicity.

“it”-> multiplicity/plurality of identities.

“Creature”-> multiplicity/plurality of identities.

-The use of pronouns. ‘it’ ‘he’ Social construction of gender by using ‘he’, presentation of
the mirror stage brilliant. Gender identity, he is totally uncomfortable in this role. Very
interesting way that the system that not accept weird and complex identity, you have to
be one of another, not in the middle. She said something ‘uncanny’, the weird thing,
before the acquisition of the gender, George is fluid, complex but then he is accepted to
be this professor in the society. ‘many faces within his face’ multiplicity of identities,
before entering to the system. ‘like fossil dead’ when you have all this multiplicity, they
are dead, they cannot flourish in this patriarchal system. ‘live dying creature’ antithesis,
almost oxymoron. When you enter in the system like that they die. Use of pronouns,
fluidity, ‘it’ animal nature, chaotic nature. ‘we’ just plural identity without a gender
identity, in the system it changes into ‘he’. ‘has to’ ‘must’ (he has to change to fit on that
society) imposition of ideas, an order from the system, interpellation, you are call by the
system, something already internalize that makes us behave in a way, we are demanding
to act in this civilization, something acceptable to them, misrecognition, we think we are
like that but it is just a construction, the result is acceptable but we do not feel like that,
we are not like that, not necessarily what we are. ‘obediently’ emphasis in the
interpellation, artificial identity connected with the idea of dressing up. Almost like George
is like a robot, imitating the identity of George, he does not like what he is doing but
performs thing automatically. When he enters to the system, he gets a name and he is a
male now.

-Reference to Darwinism, George is violent. ‘the strongest survive’ he is something he is

going to internalize, his violence totally explained in the hegemonic masculinity, role of a
man. Destruction of natural confuses it with power of men. Aggressive primitive nature
that is supposed to be the real masculinity. Contrast between nature and culture,
Rousseau vs Hopes. Ant are presented as vulnerable, easily destroyed. George will end with the
ants. He tries to end with creatures that are not strong to show his strength, however, he feels
vulnerable himself in the system because of his sexuality. He is gay and does not follow the
typical dominant male figure. Ants are a metaphor for the vulnerability but he doesn’t want to
belong to that community. He overreacts by doing the opposite: performing the hegemonic
masculinity. In that way he feels safe and comfortable. Él se siente empoderado de esa forma.

-Reference to the Nanny, semiotic aspect, he feels rescue, protected, in contrast to the
adult life. That childhood (semiotic aspect) is a safe place.

QUESTION 3: There seems to be a connection between the house and the self (protection but
also imprisonment and modernist isolation) vs. death/freedom. Explain and illustrate (pp. 3, 6 &
9-10). This connection is extended to the street. What are the implications of its name (Camphor
Tree Lane) and its description in connection with the self? (pp. 7-8)

First reaction: place of protection. House as a private place. Where these gays identities are
protective. However, the house is like asphyxiating them. The house becomes a place of isolation.
There is not real communication between characters. There is a strong attachment, they love each
other but they hide it from society, it is a not perfect relationship. The character we have on this
novel is unromantic. There is a sense of realistic attachment but there is antiromanticism. He feels
betrayed by Jim. Recelo del protagonista de Jim por acostarse con Doris.

The self in the modernism isolation, solitary island, pessimistic of the self. How is
connected to the house? Like a prison. ‘a prisoner for life’ ‘this is a tightly planned little
house’. House presented as something cost but a place where romanticism love cannot
exist. ‘there is hardly room enough here to feel lonely’ The love he feels for Jim is negative
reactions, he tries to create a romantic love but there are some betrayals, so he cannot
achieve it, betrayal with Doris. This marks the tone of the novel, very gloomy, pessimistic.
Fact house isolated and separated from the world as the protagonist who is alienated.
Name of the street where the house is: Camphor Tree Lane. A tree that used to be very
old, big and it is disappearing, being ever green, medicine, supposed to have curative
properties, totally irony in the novel because this tree is supposed to cure people, but
unable to cure the relationship between them and even Jim dies. This place used to be a
utopian place but not now. The fact that only straight couples are privileged by the society
trauma by the protagonist, now the place it has been conquest by the heterosystem.

QUESTION 4: There are several references to John Ruskin, the leading English art critic of the
Victorian era, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. In all of his writing, he emphasized
the connections between nature, art and society. In Isherwood’s novel, Ruskin seems to
epitomize the view of constructed and artificial masculinity. Locate the references to Ruskin (pp.
7 & 11) and explain in which way Isherwood shows his opposition to Ruskin’s view on
masculinity.

George reaction to Ruskin’s book: total rejection of the philosopher. His aggressive mechanism as
a defense mechanism.

he is not performing aggressiveness, he is really aggressive, that is why he is ashamed of himself

Reference to John Ruskin, misogynist. ‘you like pop-guns ...’ (page 7). Reference weapon
like connection. The protagonist rejects him, he feels sick to this mentality, ideas and uses
his book to go to the toilet, funny aspect. Highly ironic because the protagonist rejects this
masculinity aggressive when he performs like that, aggressive behavior.

QUESTION 5: The description of George on page 11 is quite revealing as regards his fake
masculinity and the way it is perceived by his neighbors (children):

El trata de convencerse que esa agresividad es natural, pero es todo un genero de juego. Paradox
in the writer. Even with the children he is playing the game of performing the hegemonic
masculinity.

The description of George in page 11 reveals his fake masculinity and the way is perceived
by the children. ‘his roarings are not play acting’ his aggressiveness is real, not acting at all.
He feels sorry about it, but he cannot do anything because is his nature. ‘substitute’ But
he does not want to be replace as a ‘man’, dramatic ironic. He thinks he is violent by
nature but as readers we know why he is aggressive is because he wants to be accepted
by the society, funny and irony because he is looking acceptance by the children, they do
not even care. ‘they are indifferent… it is only George who cares’ just a game, gender roles
game. He betrays himself by saying he is aggressive by nature to be accepted by the
society funnily enough by children, big effort to be accepted as the man, but everything he
does betrays himself because is not accepted by the society. ‘to play the monster’
apparently hegemonic masculinity, extreme aggressive. Direct criticism of this masculinity.

QUESTION 6:

Patriarchal organization. Internal hegemony by the parents. The boys have superiority over girls
but when we compare with the parents, they don’t play any role. The parents take the lead role.
Description about the neighborhood perfect to illustrate gender roles at different levels.

-in children, particularly Benny. Benny is really spoilt, and he never is punished, he does
whatever he wants, the parents think his aggressiveness is something natural because he
is a boy, so it cannot be punished. Violence accepted and supported by the system,
anticipation of the privileged group of men. Indoctrination of children example. Wild
behavior. The weight-machine described as a person, personification. Like killing a real
person and that is supported by the mother. Animalization/ monstrification of Benny, good
way to create an effect on readers, beginning of that masculinity. Even suggestion of
future aggressive in gender roles, on women. Contrast between animals and Benny,
animals behaving more humanized. ‘harmless baby-king snakes’ ‘more normal and
healthier’ all this natural because is the way to be a man. Cultural teaching. Power of the
media, behind society ideological models, ‘he is someone or other on TV’ he imitates what
he sees on TV. Totally grotesque. The little boy is the monster, not the snake.

TECHNOLOGIES OF GENDER: Gender pass through media. Behavior of the little child.

-in boys and girls. General group of boys: aggressiveness and freedom to do what they
want. Girls represented by the flowers, delicate, destroyed by boys. Homosexuality, totally
separated from each other. Girls always around boys, girls are there to attract men
attention, educated to define themselves in relation to the boys (hetereoreality). Second
hand in the society, Men-woman-boys-girls, (hierarchy) the one who talks to the girls are
the one who are emasculated. Own homophobic attitude of George, the protagonist.
‘pretty sissy son’. No communication between these two groups because of the gender
roles. Girls as ornamentation ‘Cleopatra’. Most important fact is that they are just
children, but they will emulate this on the future.

-in adults. Husbands top position. Men are the patriarchs of the society, children have to
obey, even boys because they are still young. ‘the ball-playing must stop’. Even in adults,
gender spheres separated. Women working together inside, ‘preparing salad in the
kitchen ‘men ‘drinking in the porch’. Reference to ‘America utopia’ possessor of this are
these white men. It just a dream, it never exists. They create a circle supposed to be in
control, behind this appearance of strength there is vulnerability. ‘they are proud of the
kingdom (…) they are afraid of little me’. Immanence idea, enclosed to protect themselves
to any threats. Homophobic, they feel exposed because inside they know they are that
strong, but they need to pretend. George epitomizes that fear. Join forces to create a
dream ‘utopia’ but behind there is vulnerability. Word ‘queer’ to refer to George, with a
label they can categorize him and easier to attack him, exposed that, empower
themselves within the system. Language does not reflect reality, creates reality. Language
as a weapon to attack minorities. They need to be protected, all homosexual men are
connected to syphilis, they are ill, you cannot be connected with them because it is
contagious. ‘living dolls’ performative, all puppets in the system. Also, it is a way to
emasculate the character, although he plays and does a big effort to be a big man,
aggressive and strong he is described as a ‘doll’. Gender roles just a gender role,
indoctrinated since childhood. Teaching by the media.

Adults-> America utopia-> sense of masculinity and control of the nation. Connection of
masculinity with the sense of a nation. The sense of patriotism. But this is a construction, a utopia.
There is a criticism to that masculinity. These men in order to feel as controller of the situation
they need to feel that they posses it. Utopia in order to show their masculinity. Connected with
the sense of immanence, something that has been constructed by Americans and has to be
protected by Americans. They have to pretend to be strong to keep that masculinity but behind
that they feel scared and vulnerable. It is related to the homophobic, they feel exposed because
inside they know they are that strong, but they need to pretend. Homosexuality represents
abjection. Emasculation: fear of hegemonic masculinity losing its power and becoming an example
of femineity. Strategy of protection of this group of men is try to defend themselves with
language.

Mr. Strunk-> he is described as a living doll. Feminization of the character. The emphasis is on the
emasculation of Mr. Strunk. Way to deconstruct hegemonic masculinity.

Opinion of Miss. Strunk-> for her it is not just that George is a monster but a sense of pity bc of
homosexuality. With the prejudiced idea of homosexuality.

QUESTION 7: George displays his opinion about minority groups during his lecture: ‘A
minority is only thought of as minority when it constitutes some kind of threat to the
majority, real or imaginary’ (53); ‘a minority has its own kind of aggression… It hates the
majority – not without a cause, I grant you. It even hates the other minorities – because
all minorities are in competition; each one proclaims that its sufferings are the worst
and its wrongs are the blackest’ (54). • Show in which way George and the rest of the
campus members represent Althusser’s interpellation/misrecognition process in
connection with ideological state apparatuses. • Sexual drives are presented as escaping
this social limitation and thus connected with animalization. Illustrate this idea. •
George is socially perceived as breaking hetero-normativity and yet he is obsessed in the
novel with detaching himself from the camp stereotype (and from other minority
groups) and performs traditional masculinity in its link with virility and aggressiveness.
His position about minorities is ambiguous. The impression we get is that he performs
this masculinity as a way to avoid being labeled as ‘minority’ and being discriminated.
Find examples.

George: he is aware of being a member of a minority but at the same time he knows that it comes
vulnerability if he belongs to that minority. He becomes prejudices and makes fun of these
minorities, but behind the prejudices he feels that the minorities are not competition. He points at
the direction of gender impact. He is joining forces. Different minorities joining forces against
hegemonic masculinity. He has the potential to become an important figure but he doesn’t know
how to do it because he is victim of that hegemonic masculinity. (IMPORTANT)

George becomes a robot, an artificial thing. Él pierde el control de su identidad y se convierte en el

esclavo que conduce al master/dueño y pierde toda esa conexión con su identidad, para
convertirse en el chofer de otra persona. Serie de imágenes conectadas con la artificialidad.

Interpellation.

He is compared with a machine. He becomes an instrument for the system to work properly.
Artificial performance.

George and secretaries-> he is performing a role and the secretaries become actresses. University
as a theatre. Artificial dialogue between them following expectation of their roles in order to be
socially accepted and recognized.

‘negroes, Mexican…’ (page 27) -> Interpellation and misrecognition-> this idea of using human
beings as commodities, they are processed and given labels, treated as objects. All of us are
manipulated by society.

“They are passing the tennis courts at this moment”-> He is watching the tennis game. Sense of
biologism. The believe in a natural essence of sex. There is a sense that he needs to go back to that
animalization. He tries to explore an essential sexuality.

Students fighting the waves.

Description of Doris having sex with Jim. She is described as an animal. Even Doris is described as
and animal in the context of sex.

George believes sex being something natural. Para George la parte sexual se percibe como una
animalización, como algo innato, algo biológico que es parte de tu naturaleza. La forma que el
percibe el sexo está marcado por su trauma de género. Él está aplicando su pensamiento de sexo
según los roles de género. Aunque utiliza imágenes de animalización su manera de percibirlo es a
partir de la pelea, la confrontación.

La venganza del protagonista con respecto a Doris y Jim: para él la sexualidad se convierte en una
batalla con Doris y Jim. Sex is not innocent, is always filtered through gender. Fight of power of the
protagonist.

Vulnerability in George: His age, he is less strong than younger men. Age is a problem in a system
where hegemonic masculinity is connected with youth. For him, being old means being part of a
minority group.

“He can still cop with freeways, he can still by”-> he compared himself with ben Hur.
George looks at Wally Bryant with a deep shining look that says, I am with you, little minority-
sister. Wally is plump and sallow-faced, and the care he takes to comb his wavy hair and keep
his nails filed and polished and his eyebrows discreetly plucked only makes him that much less
appetizing. Obviously, he has understood George's look. He is embarrassed. Never mind! George
is going to teach him a lesson now that he'll never forget. Is going to turn Wally's eyes into his
timid soul. Is going to give him courage to throw away his nail file and face the truth of his life....
-> Gay boy-> for him he should hide any sign of homosexuality in order to survive to society. Él le
dice al estudiante que no debe actuar como gay. He rejects representations of gay identities
Patronizing attitude-> he feels he has to teach something to that student. He feels superior to him.
He doesn’t want to belong to that group of gay people because it implies vulnerability. Él se
empodera con esa masculinidad hegemónica. EL utiliza esa estrategia de homofobia para que él
no sea la víctima de la situación.

Then, that newspaper editor, George thinks, how funny to kidnap him and the staffwriters
responsible for the sex-deviate articles—and maybe also the police chief, and the head of the
vice squad, and those ministers who endorsed the campaign from their pulpits—and take them
all to a secret underground movie studio where, after a little persuasion—no doubt just showing
them the red-hot pokers and pincers would be quite sufficient—they would perform every
possible sexual act, in pairs and in groups, with a display of the utmost enjoyment. The film
would then be developed and prints of it would be rushed to all the movie theaters. George's
assistants would chloroform the ushers so the lights couldn't be turned up, lock the exits,
overpower the projectionists, and proceed to run the film under the heading of Coming
Attractions. -> Gender performance: they perform homosexuality in front of people. For him sex is
actually a performance.

One minute after the deadline, the killing will begin. The execution of the principal criminal will
be delayed for some weeks or months, to give him opportunity for reflection. Meanwhile, there
will be daily reminders. His wife may be kidnapped, garroted, embalmed and seated in the
'living room to await his return from the office. His children's heads may arrive in cartons by
mail, or tapes of the screams his relatives utter as they are tortured to death. His friends' homes
may be blown up in the night. Anyone who has ever known him will be in mortal danger-> In a
way, this is a justification from George to use that hegemonic masculinity. Él se justifica: como el
único lenguaje que entienden es la violencia, utilizare el mismo lenguaje, así no será la víctima. In
order to survive, he becomes the victimizer. He oppresses the oppressor and by doing that he
becomes the oppressor. CLAVE DE LA NOVELA: Para entender a este carácter tenemos que
entender que su agresividad es un instinto de supervivencia, porque el siente que, si no hace esto,
será una víctima como Jim, Jim es un ejemplo de figura vulnerable de la sociedad. Por lo tanto, él
se tiene que empoderar utilizando esa masculinidad hegemónica.

But does Uncle George want to be obeyed? Doesn't he prefer to be defied so he can go on killing
and killing, since all these people are just vermin and the more of them that die the better? All
are, in the last analysis, responsible for Jim's death; their words, their thoughts, their whole way
of life willed it, even though they never knew he existed. But, when George gets in as deep as
this, Jim hardly matters any more. Jim is nothing now but an excuse for hating three quarters of
the population of America. . . George's jaws work, his teeth grind, as he chews and chews the
cud of his hate-> Why is he killing people in his fantasy? He doesn’t know how canalize Jim’s
death. He blames homophobic people as the reason of Jim’s death. Él trata de culpar a alguien por
la muerte de Jim y la forma es acusar a la gente homofóbica. Como tanto el como su pareja eran
victimas de este sistema y el resultado es la muerte. Totally irrational.

QUESTION 9:

Bisexuality: Being bisexuality implies you have a strong connection to heteronormality than if you
are gay. The contrast btw external hegemony (men as a group are superior than women, children)
and internal hegemony (men portraying femininity) can be applied to bisexuality.

Doris: Example of biologism. According to biologism we need procreation. He believes in his

relationship with Jim. Trauma in George and bisexuality opens the door for that natural view.
Straight women win given that this in the patriarchal society needs. Jerarquías de género: las
mujeres son objetos sexuales que se utilizan para la procreación pero n dejan de ser necesarias
para patriarcal. Los hombres gais representan algo que no es útil para la nación por que no es
capaz de procrear. En esa jerarquía de identidades la mujer es la que esta por encima y él

George would have chosen him over her. Hay una competición con Doris y en el momento que ella
esta muriendo, ella se siente empoderado. Él está comparando cuando ella era bella y ahora que
se está muriendo. Él es el que sale ganando. En esta lucha entre una mujer beneficiada por el
patriarcado él destaca que es el que sale ganando, aunque él tenía las papeletas. Sensación de
venganza cumplida por parte de él.

Él siente una conexión con ella porque el triunfo que el siente no va a ser para siempre dado que
el va a morir como ella.

How does he feel about Doris? He has a problem with all women. Misogynist. He is
describing Doris who is dying, she used to be strong in a sexual way and now he is taking
revenge. Women represent the consumer goods in order to maintain the hetero system,
they are they objects but at least they are the objects inside the system but homosexual
couple totally invisible and totally rejected. Women are the enemy because they have the
biological rights to be part of the system. For this, for George everything is a confrontation
because there is a hierarchy of genders in the system where gay men are in the lowest
position. Problem with bisexuality, trauma, Jim and Doris had an affair. In a competition to
a woman, he is going to lose, that is why he feels so anxious about bisexuality, he has to
compete with women who are not in the same level. He feels he has triumphed because
Jim died, and Doris is dying now. Description of the two of them in England, fantasy of
running a bar together. Way of England described totally idyllic. This dream about England
contrast the real life in America, horrible, when he feels exposed and betrayed.
Relationship with Jim and George, they have a relation, but it is not the idyllic one, not
romantic.

Figure of Charlotte. She is presented as a lonely character, victim of society. He lives in

Soledad Way. She has a garden full of flowers, but they are neglected, symbol of her own
life. She does not connect with her son, she was married but not anymore. Letter of
triumph of the sister. Competition of sister regards men. No connection with her sister,
her son. Total isolation. She feels something more than friendship with George. She kissed
George and he detached himself. ‘women learn how to be good losers’ totally misogynist
commentary of George, she has tries to these straight figures. Funny presentation of
Charlotte. Denounce problem of romanticism. Presentation of romantic love that is not
real, problem to everyone. Charlotte a good example trying to find her love, but even for
the protagonist, dream about England, but the reality is not romantic at all.

Bisexuality reflected in Kenny: sexual tension around Kenny by George but we do not
know about him, never clear, always the perspective of George. Examples of flirting from
his perspective. Sea episode, bath together naked in the sea, erotic references.
Animalisation of Kenny which is highly sexual, ‘water creature’, also military context, ‘like
a warrior to fight the waves’. They go to the sea he feels chaotic, he feels he goes to the
womb of the mother, he connected with the relation of a mother and son ‘nanny’,
connection of the maternal, semiotic. At the end of the day, he feels like a child who
needs protection. In the house, the sensual tension is broken because is the rationality of
the house, he is the professor and Kenny the student. Here, Kenny seems totally
uninterest in George. He talks about Jim even in the context of Kenny and Kenny is not
interesting in the conversation, he cares about the house, commodities, the fact he is a
professor and have money. He needs to explain bisexuality and materialised everything as
an example of homosexuality with Kenny.

Final scene in the novel: his masturbation scene to death, final trauma in that fantasy in
order to masturbate. Fantasy about Kenny and Lois first, he replaces Lois because women
are the enemy, with one of the tennis court players, it does not work again, he replaces
Kenny because of the fear of being bisexual, and with the other tennis court player. ‘fear
hot animal place’ confrontation each other. Summary of all the book in this final scene.

QUESTION 10:

The end connects with the beginning. At the beginning his lover dies, and he is at his end
of his life as well. The weakening of the day and the end of his last day. ‘But now is not
simply now’ prolepsis of what is going to happen at the end (cyclical and lineal),
symbolism of the seasons (autumn, winter, spring). George’s coronary illness, suggestion
at the end. ‘Let’s us then suppose’ hypothetical dimension, ‘maybe’, tone cynical.
‘imaginal process began’ suggestion his death is connected with love, heart attack, day he
met Jim. Romanticism? In the novel ‘I think I am’ idea of feelings, relation with feeling,
problem with Jim. No romanticism, it goes beyond. The end is very scientific, technical
language. How does it resolve? ‘Blackness’ ‘no one entity’ George does not exist in this
moment. Total doubt of his existence, cynicism. Maybe the origin was the romantic
dimension with Jim, but it is destroyed because it destroys by George. Performativity of
the character, in a theatrical way. You are detached as reader from what happened there,
no connection with them. Blackness, connected with the end of a play. Totally
deconstructed, metafictional. Totally different in the movie.

QUESTION 11 (movie):

There is a big difference. There is not Doris, therefore, no betrayal by Jim. He feels lonely,
it is not the same tone. George regarding his sexual trauma, he does not have one, no
betrayal, he is the one who committed the betrayal, the bisexual one. Less complexity of
the character, Jim is the total gay and George bisexual. George had an affair with
Charlotte. Kenny wants to know more about George’s lover, he cares more about George,
behaviour totally different. Bisexuality of Kenny totally lost. Very visual movie. In the
movie there is no alienation effect, on the novel there is an artificiality, like a
performance, denouncing the alienation of people because they cannot express how they
feel, totally opposite to the film. It is emotional, so we connect with them, the denounce
of the novel disappears. Heart condition is emphasised in the movie, Charlotte said he had
one already. In the novel, we do not know that as readers. Heart-beating in the film
suggestion heart condition, reference to the pill as well. Highlight the problem of George.
The heart beating connects with the pass of time, one day is the whole movie, and the
whole novel. The suicide is only referred in the novel very subtle while in the movie is
totally elaborated, way to emphasise his trauma of Jim’s death. In the novel, beyond that,
bitter feelings of betrayal, much complex trauma. In the movie, romantic trauma. Problem
of genders role disappears.

Mirror stage: getting ready looking at the mirror at the beginning of the movie and novel.
Good adaptation, it is difficult to represent the difference between ‘he’ and ‘it’ but he says
at some point ‘he has to do it’ reference to de ‘it’, he is getting ready to become George
and act in society. In the movie is first person narrator, ‘it takes time to me to become
George’ spirit of the novel. Performativity of the novel presented in this part of the movie.
Little suggestion of multiplicity of layers when he is lying on the bed, images of blanket,
sheets covered by ink, writing his story, pen, ink spilled all over the bed. By changing
clothes, he becomes a rational person but before in the bed, irrational love, unconscious,
emotional part which contracts with his rationality as a professor. Bed where he dreams
about Jim.

Symbolism of the dogs: It does not appear in the novel. A couple of dogs, one dies and the
other one gets lost. When he is asking for the female dog, the family did even knoe it
existed, symbolises the invisibility of a gay couple, symbolic relationship of the protagonist
with Jim. Animalisation, biological connection. Hidden message, women trauma suggested
in the novel appears here, suggestion that a gay couple is non-natural, dogs symbolise a
gay couple. Gay couple works the sae as a heterosexual couple. ‘India’ reference to the
female dog which was in the parking place, symbolises the connection of George with the
dog, himself. Female dog is George. He confronts the dog, change in the character, he will
confront other characters and accept himself. Sense of hope that you do not find in the
novel.

Lecture: relation with the gay student in the novel is a very feminine character, he did not
want to connect with him in the novel, Bryan. In the movie, the student is not feminine,
and they achieve to connect when George says ‘minorities are like us’, the student was
always looking down but at this moment he looked at George and they connect. We
suppose he is gay, the idea of pessimism is not in the movie.

Bisexuality: change of roles There is a flashback in black and white to represent the
betrayal by George. Very sensorial movie, smell the perfume… Enter to the dimension of
George. It was an important moment, the revelation, discovery of his affair. In the movie,
Jim is the one with the trauma of gender roles, he is insecure because George chose a
woman before him, he does not understand his bisexuality, but this is not elaborated. In
the novel, is George the one with the trauma.

Charlotte: big attention in the movie, she had an affair with George. Her behaviour
sexualised, aggressive behaviour which reminds us of Doris. In the novel, Doris projected
as the biological woman who has the right to be in a relationship accepted by the society,
this idea is projected in Charlotte. ‘stop acting like a woman’ said George. When George
enters in the campus, students go towards him in a chaotic way, in the novel students are
categorised like animals, this is similar but in a different approach.

Reference of hammering: Big change, aggressive behaviour of children in the novel and
movie. In the movie, it is the little girl who looks innocent and inoffensive who performs
the action, in the novel it is a boy. She is the one hammering the machine aggressively.
She is very delicate, feminine, carrying in her arms a cat, you do not expect a little girl
destroying the machine. This symbolises that girls can be aggressive too, misogyny in the
movie as well. Another girl destroys a butterfly, women can be the enemy. Cat of the little
girl contrasts with the dogs of the gay couple. Gender roles problem. Poster of Hitchcock,
there is a woman protagonist with wide open eyes, double interpretation: eyes of a
woman who destroys people or the eyes of a woman presented as victim. George
confronts the little girl in the bike (not in the novel) and she shows him a scorpion and she
said that her father wants him to be in the museum and be eaten by scorpions. Here it is
the moment that women are just instrument by the system, manipulated by the father,
women also victim. Connection between the two characters, somehow the misogyny
presented before disappears.

Closing up of characters: focalisation on the eyes, lips… fragmentation typical blazon, part
of bodies, scopophilia. He does it with his eyes, fragments those character to confront
them. Intense colour emphasises his desire. Women also part of the sensorial dimension.

Spanish reference ‘Carlos’: Addition in the film, good addition to emphasises the loyalty of
George for Jim. He does not do anything with Carlos, emphasizes his love for Jim.

Closing images: In the film there is a sense of resolution, he reinsures himself and wants to
keep living. Charlotte reconciliation, so with women in general, trauma of women
resolved, he closed the door in front of Charlotte, it ends nicely. The same with Kenny, he
also closed the door nicely. Both stories are closed. He goes to the terrace and saw two
symbols, he looks happy and relaxed. The owl which symbolises knowledge, he wants to
keep living, and the moon, feminine that represents emotions, he has accepted them.
Very romantic image in the movie which contracts with the film.