I’m kicking off the discussion this week not with my own comments on these authors, but with an insightful post from a student in last spring’s class:
I loved, loved, loved “The Yellow Wallpaper”!! I’ve actually done quite a bit of study in early American medical practices, most notably obstetrics and gynecology. It’s interesting to note that the term “Hysteria” comes from ancient Greek where it referred to the uterus. Many early Greek physicians felt that there was a female disease related to the movement of the uterus in the body. The term persisted and was often also referred to as “Female hysteria.” It was very much regarded as a sort of made-up disease that was merely meant to gain attention.
We may think we’ve passed this stage, but if we look at recent events in the media, we can see that we haven’t. Gilman’s hysteria today would probably be diagnosed as post-partum depression. Think back to Tom Cruise’s attack on Brooke Shields for using mood-altering medication following the birth of her child. Many, many people still think of this condition as a form of “hysteria” and associate these types of conditions with women.
This is the first and only week during the course when we read all women writers.
Do you see any obvious differences between women and men writers at the turn of the century in America–in their topics, scope, language, focus, etc.? (Of course, using just a few writers to generalize about all is dangerous, but the writers we’re reading represent major subsets of well-regarded writers of each gender.)
(originally posted February 8, 2010)