The Madwoman In The Attic Sparknotes

The madwoman in the attic important quotes 1.

The madwoman in the attic sparknotes.

The madwoman in the attic the woman writer and the nineteenth century originally published in 1979 has long since become a classic one of the most important works of literary criticism of the 20th century. The madwoman in the attic takes its title from the iconic early victorian novel jane eyre. The poet s pen is in some sense even more than figuratively a penis. Male sexuality in other words is not just analogically but actually the essence of literary power.

In this novel rochester s first wife bertha mason has gone mad and is kept locked in an attic. In this study sandra m. Gilbert and susan gubar argue for the existence of a distinctly female literary imagination in women writers of nineteenth century. They created their own double a madwoman in the attic having identified this metaphor gilbert and gubar set out to explore its presence.

They dealt with these tensions by creating a metaphor. The woman writer and the nineteenth century literary imagination is a 1979 book by sandra gilbert and susan gubar in which they examine victorian literature from a feminist perspective. Gilbert and susan gubar is a nonfiction scholarly text comprising 16 interconnected essays. Thus the madwoman in the attic could represent the confining and repressive aspects of victorian wifehood suggesting that the lack of autonomy and freedom in marriage suffocates women threatening their mental and emotional health.

Published in 1979 this lengthy volume is now widely considered a foundational text of feminist literary criticism. In keeping with the spirit of re vision that gilbert and gubar see as essential to the worldview of nineteenth century women authors the madwoman in the attic analyzes how these outsiders. The madwoman in the attic. The madwoman in the attic.

The woman writer and the nineteenth century literary imagination forges a ground breaking contribution to feminist literary criticism.