Feminine Gospels Flashcards
What is literary theory?
The systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for literary analysis
Who are the three key critics that can be applied to Feminine Gospels?
- Simone de Beauvoir
- Helene Cixous
- Betty Friedan
What is Simone de Beauvoir’s key work?
The Second Sex, 1949
What is the ‘eternal feminine’?
Introduced by Goethe, the transcendental ideality of the feminine or womanly
Where is the ‘eternal feminine’ present?
Through biology, literature, history and psychoanalysis
What have women exclusively been viewed as?
The Other
What does the ‘Other’ mean to de Beauvoir?
Man has denied women their humanity - their ‘Somethingness’
What is Helene Cixous’ key work?
The Laugh of the Medusa - explores ‘Ecriture Feminine’, 1975
What is the ‘Ecriture Feminine’?
The articulation of female sexuality in writing and speaking
What is the male language called?
Phallocentric
What did Cixous say women shall write with?
“With mother’s milk”
What is Betty Friedan’s key work called?
The Feminine Mystique, 1963
What is the ‘Feminine Mystique’?
The prevailing belief that women who are truly feminine would not want to work, have an education or political opinons
What did Friedan’s work mean for thousands of American women?
That their limitations of gender roles was going to change with activism for feminism
What are the key events in Duffy’s childhood?
- born in Glasgow
- brought up in Strafford
- 4 brothers (reflects the 4 evangelists)
- fairytales were central
- raised Catholic
Who is Feminine Gospels dedicated to?
Duffy’s 4 brothers
When did Duffy decide she wanted to be a writer?
When she was 14
What type of school did Duffy attend?
A convant
Who was Adrian Henri?
A Liverpudlian Poet who Duffy met at 16, they had a relationship for 12 years
Where did Duffy read philosophy?
University of Liverpool
What are some of Duffy’s previous poetry collections before Feminine Gospels?
1985 - Standing Female Nude
1999 - The World’s Wife
When was Feminine Gospels published?
2002
When was Duffy awarded the Poet Laureate?
In 2009, she resigned her positon in 2019
When was Duffy’s daughter born?
1995
What is Duffy’s poetic style?
- characterisation
- asyndetic listing
- colloquial
- playful
- humour with social commentary and serious insights
What does the title Feminine Gospels reveal?
That this collection focuses on the ‘truth’ of the female experience
What does Gospel mean?
The teaching or revelation of Christ
What does Feminine mean?
Having qualities or an appearance traditionally associated with women or girls
What is the first poem of the collection?
‘The Long Queen’
What is the poetic structure of ‘The Long Queen’?
Sestet (6 line stanzas)
What type of poem is ‘The Long Queen’?
Narrative poem - perhaps derived from the Ballard form
What is the significance of the capitalisation of ‘Time’?
Certainty and longevity - like ‘couldn’t die.’ and ‘aways child.’ this continued inter timely connection
What is the significance of ‘The Long Queen’s’ 4 laws?
‘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
‘Unseen’ ‘disguised’ - How do these quotes show ‘The Long Queen’ as a fairytale-like figure?
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
‘linked to the moon’ - What is the significance of womanhood and the moon?
It represents the rhythm of time as it embodies our cycle, but also the luminous, ultimate symbol of femininity
What is the poem ‘Beautiful’ about?
The destruction of women, caused by men but due to the woman’s possession of beauty
Which 4 women are explored in ‘Beautiful’?
Helen of Troy
Cleopatra
Marylin Monroe
Princess Diana
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’?
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
How does ‘She watched him hunt. He killed a stag.’ relate to the traditional courtly love poetry in Cleopatra?
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
‘action, cut, quiet please, action, cut’ what does this repetition symbolise for the position of women in Monroe?
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.
‘Give us a smile, cunt.’ How does this quote show the intimacy men believe they are entitled to have with women?
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
How is ‘The Woman Who Shopped’ structured?
In quatrains
What is the impact of Duffy’s internal rhymes in ‘The Woman Who Shopped’?
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
What does the repetition of ‘wanted’ reinforce?
The personal desire of the woman
What is the significance of the verbs and their movement?
‘willing’ ‘haggled’ ‘danced’ ‘wanted’ ‘flashed’ ‘shrugged’ ‘tapping’ ‘fled’
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
What is the change after the 3 asterisks?
The Woman becomes the shop, her humanity is depleted
Where is there a sexualisation of the woman?
‘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
‘credit cards swiping themselves in her blood’ what does this suppose?
The woman has drained her life away
What is an alternative reading of ‘The Woman Who Shopped’?
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
What is ‘Work’ about?
The growth in women’s responsibilities to provide for society
Who could work represent?
‘Mother nature’ - the provider
What is the structure of ‘Work’?
It is in quatrains
What does each stanza represent in ‘Work’?
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
What does the ending of ‘Work’ reveal to the readership?
‘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
What is the significance of Duffy’s asyndeton listing?
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
What is ‘Tall’ about?
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
There are a lot of words and phrases which have a double meaning, give an example?
‘on the house’ - a free drink or literally on the house
‘hungover’ - literally hungover or is she hanging over the house?
Why is there great religious imagery in ‘Tall’?
Perhaps this is to represent the supernatural ‘gift’ of height the woman has - ‘pilgrims’ travel to see her, and she tries to catch ‘souls’
How does the theory of reflexivity apply to ‘Tall’?
Low levels of reflexivity - society shapes individual
High levels of reflexivity - individual shapes society
The ‘Tall’ woman shapes society
What is the poem ‘Loud’ about?
The growth and power of the female voice and how this is ‘loud’ enough to be substantially heard
