Blog 2: Liberation and Edith Wharton

            In Edith Wharton’s novel, Summer, she focuses much of the book on the idea of liberation. Charity, the central character of the book has received a sort of liberation in several different ways; she was saved from The Mountain, she was relieved from her boring life in North Dormer by a handsome young outsider named Harney, and then by her adopted father Mr. Royall when she finds herself in a bit of a predicament. The interesting theme of liberation goes much further than Charity’s continual escape from certain doom. A look at the author’s life shows a much deeper sense of the word “liberation” and while we cannot assume that any of Edith’s personal life plays a part of her novel, we can certainly use her personal experience to broaden the theme of liberation in her novel.
            According to Elizabeth Ammons, while Edith Wharton was living in France during the First World War she was very active in helping war victims, refugees, and orphaned girls. She “established a lacemaking school…which aided close to 800 childern in 1915 alone” (xvi). Edith provided a way for young women to overcome their circumstances by teaching them a trade
that could be used after the war. In a sense, she liberated them from the world of war and the grotesque realities of life after war. She offered them hope.
            Throughout Summer there are themes of liberation seen not only through Charity but through events that occur such as the Fourth of July. And while there are instances of liberation, there are also times in which liberation seems to be suppressed. Such as in Mr. Royall’s speech at Old Home Week in which he expresses his idea to remain where you are in life and “make the best of it” (85). Even the setting of the story, the town of North Dormer, is described as “at all times an empty place”, “small”, and a place in which the women “engaged in languid household duties” (2). It is a place in which the people of North Dormer get stuck and never leave. A place that is referenced to throughout the story and is even more excluded and ominous is The Mountain from which Charity was adopted. The Mountain holds even more connotations of imprisonment that North Dormer. It is described as “a blot” and the people of The Mountain are called “scum” (30).

            In Edith Wharton’s own life we see her concern for young people, especially young women, knowing that there is always hope. In her novel she related these concerns with her themes and referenced to liberation through her characters, settings, and events. She allows her characters to struggle with the idea of liberation and just what it means to be liberated. For Harney, it was marrying the right girl with the right family and the right money. For Mr. Royall it was marrying Charity. For Charity, it was the assurance that her child would be raised well. Liberation is key throughout Summer and an important and interesting theme to be aware of throughout the novel. 

Ammons, Elizabeth. "Introduction". Summer. By Edith Wharton. 1917. New York: Penguin, 1993, vii-         xxvi. 

Wharton, Edith. Summer. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, 2006. Print.

Blog 1: Reading Response

       According to Joanna Russ, women writers have been limited by the male culture in the sense that our literature is “by men and about men” (Russ 81). Literature is written from a male point of view, and since female literature is less dominant than male literature, the result is that literature is limited in our culture to being relatable only to the male. Because of this, there are restrictions as to what women can write. Russ believes that women have been restricted to the love story, how a heroine goes mad, or just restricted to sticking to the “male myths with male protagonists” (Russ 85). The problem with this is how limiting it is to the female author, and ultimately unfair. There can be no true heroines, according to Russ, because any woman who tries to assume some authoritative role and preside over the male will always be considered “the Bitch Goddess” (Russ 82).
            Russ has a solution. Women need to write lyricism (such as an epic or poetry) and about life (Russ 87). She also goes on to say that certain myths our culture upholds are out of date and not transferrable to all cultures or less dominant groups of people. Russ states that, “perhaps current fictional myths no longer tell the truth about any of us” (Russ 92). She ends her article by encouraging women to write and change the current clichés that society thinks about women and women’s literature. Change the myths and we will change the culture.

            While Russ believes women should write poems and about life, Cixous and Lorde argue that women should write about women to women. Cixous wants women to write about their life as women, sharing only things that other women can relate to. Women should “proclaim this unique empire so that other women, other unacknowledged sovereigns, might exclaim: I, too, overflow; my desires have invented new desires…”(Cixous 321). Meaning that the more women write, the more other women will realize that they, too, have something worth saying. Lorde, also, encourages women to write, stating that, “there are no new ideas” being brought forth within the world, but women should still pursue “new possibilities and strengths” (Lorde 39).

            Gilman and Jackson respond to the “myths of male culture” by writing. They write about the women’s view of life. They write on how they are dismissed when they say that they are sick, how they are dismissed when they proclaim that something is not fair, and how the male cultures believes that they are not smart enough to have an opinion about their health or the affairs of local government. The ways in which they uphold certain myths are in the ways they portray the women as enable to rise above their circumstances. Their characters are too mental to stand up to their husband, or too entrapped by society to prevent their own death.

“The Laugh of the Madusa” by Helen Cixous

“Poetry Is Not a Luxery” by Audre Lorde
“What Can a Heroine Do? Or Why Women Can’t Write?” by Joanna Russ

Blog 0: Intro and Request

Blog 0:


      My name is Becca Wilson, I was born and raised in Augusta, Georgia. I am the oldest of four, I play violin in a local folk band, and I am getting my degree in English on the Secondary Education track. I have a broad range of reading interest, from mystery novels to non-fiction to poetry. I do not know that I am particularly passionate about any one issue. I enjoy reading about issues from all time periods such as The Harlem Renaissance, early American short stories that deal with social, political and religious problems of the times, Victorian poetry, and contemporary literature. Through all of it there is something I can relate to, learn from, and broaden my understanding of literature as a whole. This is my first class that deals with gender studies and I am extremely excited to read and learn about Women’s literature. I know that Women’s studies is a very contemporary issue and I feel that by taking this class I will be more informed and educated about the issue as well as be able to explain to future students the issue of gender that is still prevalent in our society.

My two dates that I would like to present on are
1. March 15
2. March 22