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Tyler EdmundsENG 396KieslerResearch PaperJudith Wright: A Feminist Point of ViewJudith Wright was an Australian poet born in New South Wales in 1915. Wright was a well-educated girl throughout her lifetime, studying at the New England Girl’s School and the University of Sydney. Throughout her career, Wright was actively involved in political campaigning and moving including the antiwar movement, Australia’s conservationist movement, and the movement to change the treatment of the country’s Aboriginal people.According to the Dictionary of Literary Biography: Australian Writers, Wright’s first book of poetry, The Moving Image, was published in 1946. Wright’s second collection, Woman to Man, was published in 1949. According to Jeffery Hunter’s Contemporary Literary Criticism, her second book of poetry “was even more innovative for its frank treatment of sexuality from the female point of view” (p. 48). In 1964, Wright became the founding member and President of the Wildlife Preservation of Queensland. Also in the 1960s, Wright became involved in political action. She was well-known for campaigning support for the Great Barrier Reef and Fraser Island, as well as being an advocate for the Aboriginal land rights movement. Most of Wright’s work consisted of themes that portrayed the Australian environment, relationships between settlers and Australians, relationships between mankind and the environment, connections with the human experience and the natural world, and bridging the gap between nature and man. Because a lot of her work involved women, and the role of women in the family and society, much of work portrayed feminist themes as well. One can see through some of her works, Wright was never afraid to express her opinions, thoughts, and ideas. As it was mentioned earlier, many of Wright’s works portrayed feminists themes that helped express her ideas. This research analysis will focus on several of Wright’s works that will be approached from a feminist point of view. In order to approach Wright’s work from a feminist perspective, one must understand the feminist literary theory. According to Lisa Tuttle’s Encyclopedia of Feminism, feminist theory is the process of “asking new questions of old text.” Tuttle explains that feminist theory looks to cover six goals: to develop and uncover a female tradition of writing, to interpret symbolism of women’s writing so that it will not be lost or ignored by the male point of view, to rediscover old texts, to analyze women writers and their writings from a female perspective, to resist sexism in literature, and to increase awareness of the sexual politics of language and style (Tuttle 184).According to Tuttle, feminist literary criticism before the 1970s was concerned with the politics of women’s authorship and the representation of women’s condition within literature. Due to Wright’s major involvement with political movement and social change, one could see how she could have possibly been influenced by feminist point of views. By understanding basic concepts and ideas of feminist literary theory, it can be easier for one to approach some of Wright’s works from a feminist point of view.One work of Wright that can be approached from this type of criticism is Woman to Man. Throughout this piece, Wright is using the image of a pregnant woman to create her picture. The reader can easily discover this in the first stanza when she says, “The eyeless labourer in the night, the selfless, shapeless seed I hold, builds for its resurrection day.” According to Kenneth Richardson’s Twentieth Century Writing: A Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Literature, the use of the word “resurrection” is interesting “implying a death first” but a re-birth as well. In the second stanza Wright continues by explaining how even though the woman has not produced the child yet, and even though he/she does not have a name yet, both the author and the father seem to “know the child intimately” (Richardson p. 666). The reader can see that both the mother and the father are excited about their creation. The poem continues by explaining how what physical features the baby will gain from both the mother and the father. This description, according to Contemporary Literary Criticism, shows how “there is a cooperation in this endeavor, and the result will belong to both the mother and the father.” The stanza also talks about “blood’s wild tree that grows.” This could possibly be talking about the veins and arteries inside of the baby (Richardson p. 667). Wright ends her poem by showing the dangers of childbirth. As the baby is being delivered the author implies that the new born baby will face danger. According to Martin Seymour’s The New Guide to Modern World Literature, the blindness and darkness the baby experiences in the fourth stanza “cloud our vision and we have the image of violence, enclosure, and constriction.” Seymour explains that the author is trying to show how pain and shock will await in birth and in life (Seymour p. 190). Wright concludes the poem by telling the reader she is afraid of what to come. Looking at Woman to Man from a feminist perspective, one can see the messages that Wright was trying to portray. Wright used symbolism to represent different aspects of her poem. She used things such as a tree to explain the veins of a baby, as well as the act of childbirth to show “new experiences.” This poem is written in the point of view from the child bearer to give the reader a sense of what goes through a woman’s mind when she is expecting a child. Although the author does mention the father in the piece briefly, she mainly focuses on the woman’s perspective. Wright creates a strong feminist message in the conclusion of her piece. While most people, men included, believe childbirth to be a happy and exciting time for a family, Wright shows that there are dangers along the way. She shows this when she says “so hold me, for I am afraid.” In a sense she’s saying that childbirth isn’t as easy as it seems and there’s going to be dangers along the way for her as well as the child. Wright shows the “truth” behind childbirth by telling from the main source’s point of view, the woman. Another work that can be approached from a feminist point of view is Eve to Her Daughters. Throughout this piece, Wright explains the aftermath, in a sense, of the story of Adam in Eve from Genesis using Eve’s point of view. The whole piece is a message to Adam and Eve’s daughters. The first stanza begins with Eve explaining how it was not her that began the aftermath from the incident that occurred in the Garden of Eden. She also talks about how after they were banished from the garden, she and Adam had to work for food, but she was never unhappy about it. According to Seymour-Smith’s Funk and Wagnails Guide to Modern World Literature, Eve projects the warmth of the cave they were living in; she advocates the natural, the uncivilized, uncultured place, which is her native place (p. 182). Eve (the author) continues to explain how Adam was always unhappy and was always complaining about the “trick” that had been played on them in the garden. She also explains how Adam hated how the earth was “imperfect,” how he hated working for a living, and how he even complained of her cooking. Beginning with the fifth stanza, Eve begins to explain Adam’s “makeup.” She explains how Adam is mechanical minded and how he was always worried about getting to the “inside of the whole machine.” She continues to explain how Adam lost his belief in God and Satan. She explains how Adam believes that God and Satan “cannot be demonstrated, and what cannot be demonstrated doesn’t exist.”In the seventh stanza Eve directs her message back to her daughters. She explains to them that maybe it’s time for them to take over the household, but she is also afraid that they inherited their parents’ “faults.” Eve continues by saying that maybe the only thing that exists in the world are people’s faults since they can be “demonstrated.” She concludes her message by saying how it would be useless to tell Adam her idea because it seems as if he has turned himself into God: a man who “doesn’t exist.After reading this poem, it is easy for one to approach the piece with a feminist point of view. For starters, the author rediscovers old text. Eve to Her Daughters is a story about the aftermath that occurred after both Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden. This poem is rediscovering the story from Genesis and gives the reader a different perspective of the outcome. Many would agree that when they view the story of Adam and Eve they believe that it was Eve’s fault they were banished from the garden since she was the first one to eat of the Tree of Good and Evil. Wright, using a feminist approach, uses the woman to explain how it was not completely her fault they were banished, and that she accepted the consequences. Wright writes the story of the aftermath of Adam and Eve from a perspective that probably has not been formed by many, a female perspective. If man was to write this piece, he would have most definitely wrote it in a different manner. More than likely he probably would not have shown as much sympathy to the woman that Wright did. Wright’s story gives more sympathy to Eve, and less to Adam. In a sense, the reader feels sorry for Eve because she has to put up with Adam and his complaints. Wright gives a sense of determination and strong-will to Eve; to the woman.Another poem that can be analyzed from a feminist perspective is To Another Housewife. This piece is a story about two childhood friends who made a pact when they were young girls, but eventually had to break that pact when they became older. In the first stanza, Wright explains a childhood story between two young girls. She asks her friend if she can remember the memory of when they would have to feed her father’s hunting dogs. She continues by explaining how the dogs were loud, furious, and always hungry. The author describes the dogs as being so hungry that when they would feed the dogs they would leap up from their chains so viciously that the girls thought the dogs were going to bite their fingers. In the second stanza, the author continues her childhood story explaining how her and her friend would cut up meat all the time and feed it to the dogs. The reader can realize the girls did not enjoy this by reading how they “gagged at their carcass-smell.” Wright also talks about how finally the girls made a pact and swore that they would never touch meet ever again. The third stanza is a fast-forward to when the two girls are much older and married. Wright explains how the oath that the two girls made when they were young had been broken. The reader discovers this in lines 16 and 17 when the author talks about how both of their “housewife hands” have touched so many different cuts of meat for their families. According to Jahan Ramazani, Richard Ellmann, and Robert O’Clair’s The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry, Wright uses contrast and juxtaposition to outline the change in values when the girl who had at one time despised seeing death has come to associate with it daily (p. 111). Wright concludes her poem by giving the picture of sitting down at the dinner table with her family to eat. When the meat is being carved and served, the family hears on the radio about murder, famine, and wars. The author ends the poem by showing how it doesn’t seem to bother them that they are eating dead animal meat when there’s so much chaos going on in the world. After reading this piece, it is easy for the reader to approach this piece from a feminist point of view. Throughout this piece, Wright uses the point of view from a woman to show the change in values and responsibilities that women go through from childhood to adulthood (Ramazani p.111). One could say that if a man wrote this piece from a man’s perspective it would be much different. During Wright’s time, men were the head of the households. Most men did not have to worry about changing their values because of their “spot” in the household. Women had to adjust their values and responsibilities because of their role in the house-life. Wright shows the adjustments that women make throughout their life for their families, even if it meant breaking pacts and oaths they created when they were younger.Wright wrote this piece from a female perspective so that one could see the difference between the family life of a man and the family life of a woman. It was custom for the woman to cook for the family. Men did not care about the process of dealing with the loss of animals. From a male perspective, man did not care about the “dirty work” that went involved with eating meat. Wright took the time to show that the woman cared about what went involved with eating animals. Wright portrayed this point of view from the woman so that the male point of view would not “over shadow” all other perspectives. After reading several of Wright’s works, it is easy to see from looking at her life and career, what drove and inspired her to write the way she did. As one can see, it is simple to approach many of her poems from a feminist perspective a point of view because Wright was very outspoken about her ideas and beliefs. This could arguably be because of her major involvement with things such as political movement. Works CitedMyerson, Joel. Dictionary of Literary Biography: Australian Writers 1915-1950. Vol. 260. Detroit, MI: Gale Research, 1978. Print.Seymour-Smith, Martin. Funk & Wagnalls Guide to Modern World Literature. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1973. 182. Print.Seymour-Smith, Martin. The New Guide to Modern World Literature. New York: Peter Bedrick, 1985. 190. Print.Tuttle, Lisa. Encyclopedia of Feminism. Harlow: Longman 1986. 184. Print.Hunter, Jeffrey W. Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 137. Detroit, MI: Gale, 2011. 47-51. Print.Richardson, Kenneth. Twentieth Century Writing: a reader’s guide to contemporary literature. New York: Hamlyn, 1969. 665-666. Print.Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar. The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women: The Traditions in English. 3rd ed. Vol. 2. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2007. 722-28. Print.Ramazani, Jahan, Richard Ellmann, and Robert O'Clair. The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry, 3rd Edition: Volume 2, Contemporary Poetry. [S.l.]: Norton, W.W., and, 2003. 111. Print. ................
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