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AQA English Literature - Modern Times > Feminine Gospels > Flashcards

Feminine Gospels Flashcards

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Proverbs and Idioms flashcards
1
Q

What is literary theory?

A

The systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for literary analysis

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2
Q

Who are the three key critics that can be applied to Feminine Gospels?

A
  • Simone de Beauvoir
  • Helene Cixous
  • Betty Friedan
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3
Q

What is Simone de Beauvoir’s key work?

A

The Second Sex, 1949

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4
Q

What is the ‘eternal feminine’?

A

Introduced by Goethe, the transcendental ideality of the feminine or womanly

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5
Q

Where is the ‘eternal feminine’ present?

A

Through biology, literature, history and psychoanalysis

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6
Q

What have women exclusively been viewed as?

A

The Other

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7
Q

What does the ‘Other’ mean to de Beauvoir?

A

Man has denied women their humanity - their ‘Somethingness’

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8
Q

What is Helene Cixous’ key work?

A

The Laugh of the Medusa - explores ‘Ecriture Feminine’, 1975

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9
Q

What is the ‘Ecriture Feminine’?

A

The articulation of female sexuality in writing and speaking

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10
Q

What is the male language called?

A

Phallocentric

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11
Q

What did Cixous say women shall write with?

A

“With mother’s milk”

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12
Q

What is Betty Friedan’s key work called?

A

The Feminine Mystique, 1963

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13
Q

What is the ‘Feminine Mystique’?

A

The prevailing belief that women who are truly feminine would not want to work, have an education or political opinons

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14
Q

What did Friedan’s work mean for thousands of American women?

A

That their limitations of gender roles was going to change with activism for feminism

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15
Q

What are the key events in Duffy’s childhood?

A
  • born in Glasgow
  • brought up in Strafford
  • 4 brothers (reflects the 4 evangelists)
  • fairytales were central
  • raised Catholic
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16
Q

Who is Feminine Gospels dedicated to?

A

Duffy’s 4 brothers

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17
Q

When did Duffy decide she wanted to be a writer?

A

When she was 14

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18
Q

What type of school did Duffy attend?

A

A convant

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19
Q

Who was Adrian Henri?

A

A Liverpudlian Poet who Duffy met at 16, they had a relationship for 12 years

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20
Q

Where did Duffy read philosophy?

A

University of Liverpool

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21
Q

What are some of Duffy’s previous poetry collections before Feminine Gospels?

A

1985 - Standing Female Nude
1999 - The World’s Wife

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22
Q

When was Feminine Gospels published?

A

2002

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23
Q

When was Duffy awarded the Poet Laureate?

A

In 2009, she resigned her positon in 2019

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24
Q

When was Duffy’s daughter born?

A

1995

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25
Q

What is Duffy’s poetic style?

A
  • characterisation
  • asyndetic listing
  • colloquial
  • playful
  • humour with social commentary and serious insights
26
Q

What does the title Feminine Gospels reveal?

A

That this collection focuses on the ‘truth’ of the female experience

27
Q

What does Gospel mean?

A

The teaching or revelation of Christ

28
Q

What does Feminine mean?

A

Having qualities or an appearance traditionally associated with women or girls

29
Q

What is the first poem of the collection?

A

‘The Long Queen’

30
Q

What is the poetic structure of ‘The Long Queen’?

A

Sestet (6 line stanzas)

31
Q

What type of poem is ‘The Long Queen’?

A

Narrative poem - perhaps derived from the Ballard form

32
Q

What is the significance of the capitalisation of ‘Time’?

A

Certainty and longevity - like ‘couldn’t die.’ and ‘aways child.’ this continued inter timely connection

33
Q

What is the significance of ‘The Long Queen’s’ 4 laws?

A

‘Childhood’ ‘Blood’ Tears’ ‘Childbirth’
This commemorates the intrinsic nature of womanhood, its perpetual place in ‘Time’ and how these laws are crucial to female identity

34
Q

‘Unseen’ ‘disguised’ - How do these quotes show ‘The Long Queen’ as a fairytale-like figure?

A

The woman being in disguise is typical in fairytales - the isolated woman in a ‘tower’ cast out from the rest of society. It is also witch-like and mystical imagery

35
Q

‘linked to the moon’ - What is the significance of womanhood and the moon?

A

It represents the rhythm of time as it embodies our cycle, but also the luminous, ultimate symbol of femininity

36
Q

What is the poem ‘Beautiful’ about?

A

The destruction of women, caused by men but due to the woman’s possession of beauty

37
Q

Which 4 women are explored in ‘Beautiful’?

A

Helen of Troy
Cleopatra
Marylin Monroe
Princess Diana

38
Q

In Helen of Troy, what is the significance of the first and last lines: ‘She was born from an egg’ - ‘and kept like a little bird inside a cage’?

A

The cyclic structure of using the metaphor of a bird to suppose that female beauty comes at the cost of freedom. Perhaps Helen of Troy was never meant to be a free woman because she was born ‘from an egg’ something external and to be kept ‘like a little bird’ - through the male perspective we can understand that women are meant to be possessed

39
Q

How does ‘She watched him hunt. He killed a stag.’ relate to the traditional courtly love poetry in Cleopatra?

A

The chase/ the hunt to prove one’s worthy of possessing such beauty in a woman. Yet this has become overtly violent, to the point of death ‘he killed’ - referencing Cleoptra’s death

40
Q

‘action, cut, quiet please, action, cut’ what does this repetition symbolise for the position of women in Monroe?

A

There is a brutal nature to the way women are treated as commodities, as mere possessions, and the cacophony emphasises the violent end to Monroe - and many other women’s - lives.

41
Q

‘Give us a smile, cunt.’ How does this quote show the intimacy men believe they are entitled to have with women?

A

The typical cat-calling nature of ‘give us a smile is contrasted with the insulting and offensive ‘cunt’ placing emphasis on how women are expected to give everything to society at the cost of nothing

42
Q

How is ‘The Woman Who Shopped’ structured?

A

In quatrains

43
Q

What is the impact of Duffy’s internal rhymes in ‘The Woman Who Shopped’?

A

They create a greater depth to the consumption of the woman: ‘groom’ - ‘honeymoon’ and ‘‘buy’ - ‘eye’ these show the endless possibilities to shopping and the incessant need for more

44
Q

What does the repetition of ‘wanted’ reinforce?

A

The personal desire of the woman

45
Q

What is the significance of the verbs and their movement?
‘willing’ ‘haggled’ ‘danced’ ‘wanted’ ‘flashed’ ‘shrugged’ ‘tapping’ ‘fled’

A

This shows the great need to move onto the next item, the next purchase, that constant movement and fluidity - yet with many caesuras the supposed fluidity is lost

46
Q

What is the change after the 3 asterisks?

A

The Woman becomes the shop, her humanity is depleted

47
Q

Where is there a sexualisation of the woman?

A

‘Her skirts were glass doors, opening and closing’
‘queue overnight at her cunt’

This presents a level of eroticism with the continual desire to consume, like the female appetite, but also the violent reality of addiction and the lengths a woman will put herself to in order to feel satisfied

48
Q

‘credit cards swiping themselves in her blood’ what does this suppose?

A

The woman has drained her life away

49
Q

What is an alternative reading of ‘The Woman Who Shopped’?

A

The ‘willing’ to buy ‘an apple’ is a reflection of the original sin - the fall of man at the hands of a woman’s free will

So, the consequence of giving in to temptation has remained with women throughout time until they literally devote their bodies to it. This religious allusion is a comical take on the original sin

50
Q

What is ‘Work’ about?

A

The growth in women’s responsibilities to provide for society

51
Q

Who could work represent?

A

‘Mother nature’ - the provider

52
Q

What is the structure of ‘Work’?

A

It is in quatrains

53
Q

What does each stanza represent in ‘Work’?

A

The expansion of a woman’s duty and the growth of industry and domesticity it moves from domestic to industrial to the exploitation of nature

54
Q

What does the ending of ‘Work’ reveal to the readership?

A

‘Lay in a grave, worked, to the bone, her fingers twenty-four seven’
- women are still working beyond death
- women have been worked to the grave
- their work is underground, in the grave without recognition

55
Q

What is the significance of Duffy’s asyndeton listing?

A

It makes the working even more tiresome and powerful:
‘washing, ironing, sewing’
The combining of many different tasks creates a sense that there’s a neverending cycle of tasks for women to complete

56
Q

What is ‘Tall’ about?

A

It is a persona for the allegory of the upward social mobility of women by the increase in size - for a woman to be taken seriously in society, she must possess a supernatural quality

57
Q

There are a lot of words and phrases which have a double meaning, give an example?

A

‘on the house’ - a free drink or literally on the house
‘hungover’ - literally hungover or is she hanging over the house?

58
Q

Why is there great religious imagery in ‘Tall’?

A

Perhaps this is to represent the supernatural ‘gift’ of height the woman has - ‘pilgrims’ travel to see her, and she tries to catch ‘souls’

59
Q

How does the theory of reflexivity apply to ‘Tall’?

A

Low levels of reflexivity - society shapes individual
High levels of reflexivity - individual shapes society

The ‘Tall’ woman shapes society

60
Q

What is the poem ‘Loud’ about?

A

The growth and power of the female voice and how this is ‘loud’ enough to be substantially heard

AQA English Literature - Modern Times (4 decks)

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