The ‘natural outlawry of womankind’
Four artists in the novels of Christina Stead
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20156640 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Wendy A Woodward (0000-0002-7935-739X, University of the Western Cape, corresponding author), Wendy Woodward (0000-0002-9886-1161) |
| Year | 1988 |
| Volume | 4 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 74-85 |
| Publication date | 1988-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Literary Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0256-4718 • E-ISSN: 1753-5387 |
| Publisher | Unisa Press (PUBLISHER • ZA) |
| DOI | 10.1080/02564718808529853 |
| OpenAlex | W1975219880 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 8 |
This essay considers Christina Stead's exploration of those women artists in her oeuvre to whom she attributes embedded artworks, Catherine Baguenault in Seven Poor Men of Sydney, Louisa Pollit in The Man Who Loved Children, Teresa Hawkins in For Love Alone, and Eleanor Herbert in Miss Herbert (The Suburban Wife). In giving these putative women artists their own voices, Stead not only empowers women in the social formation she depicts, but she explores unconsciously the nature of her own craft. These women's narratives manifest various characteristics that only recently have become the subject of debate for feminist theorists. Sometimes, with the partial exception of Eleanor in Stead's novels, the artworks are antagonistic to androcentricism in general, and to the dominant discourse in particular. In combatting the Law of the Father and in attempting an alternative discourse they connect with an idea of the mother; their creativity expresses their sexual desires or fears which are often incestuous, while death or deathliness is implicit in the act of narration itself
Aesthetics · Art · Craft · Creativity · Literature · Narrative · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Theology · Visual arts · Wife · Fashion and Cultural Textiles · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · History · Irish and British Studies · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |