Feminist Dialogics: A Theory of Failed CommunitySUNY Press, 1988 M01 1 - 204 pages Feminist Dialogics examines the structure of four novels (Hawthorne's The Blithedale Romance, James's The Golden Bowl, Wharton's The House of Mirth and Chopin's The Awakening) through the lens of Mikhail Bakhtin's critical framework. The author draws on Bakhtin's notion of heteroglossia to show how the interaction of many voices forms the social community of the novel and how the functioning of these voices makes clear statements about the position and fate of women in these specific societies. The novels present dialogic situations in which the women misinterpret their social texts and, therefore, fail to understand their own social power. The four works considered in this study represent the struggle for women's construction of self within a dialogic structure of many competing voices. Bauer introduces and enters into dialogue with other theorists who are concerned with the social implications of reading and interpretation, including Rene Girard, Wolfgang Iser, Sandra Gilbert, and Susan Gubar, as well as other American feminists. The recurring theme in the novels of this study is the exclusion and rivalry of discourse: the competition among characters for authoritative and interpretive power. Each voice in the novel is a thematization of an ideological perspective and, as such, competes for domination. The conspiracy of voices to exclude the female reflects the social reality as well. This work is an important contribution to literary criticism and feminist theory. |
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Contents
A Counterfeit Aracadia | 17 |
Reading Coverdales Romance | 24 |
Coverdale and Surveillance | 31 |
Zenobias Carnival | 38 |
Zenobias Muscular Feminism | 44 |
A Matter of Interpretation | 51 |
Where Utterance Breaks Down | 66 |
Interpreting the Golden Bowl | 72 |
The Problem of the Sacred | 86 |
The Failure of the Republic | 89 |
Kate Chopins The Awakening | 129 |
Resisting Tradition | 140 |
Reading Motherhood | 152 |
Postscript | 159 |
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Common terms and phrases
Adam Adam's Adèle alien ambivalence American Amerigo argues articulate authoritative authority Awakening Bakhtin becomes Blithedale Blithedale Romance carnival characters Charlotte Charlotte's Chopin claims codes consciousness conventions Coverdale Coverdale's Creole critical culture desire discourse dominant Edith Wharton Edna Edna's exchange explains fact father female feminine feminist dialogics fiction force freedom gaze gender Golden Bowl gossip Hawthorne Hawthorne's Henry James heteroglossia Hollingsworth House of Mirth husband ideology imagination impulses individual internally persuasive interpretive community James's Jane Gallop Judith Fetterley Léonce Lily's Luce Irigaray Maggie Maggie's male marriage masquerade Mikhail Bakhtin monologic mother motherhood narrative norms notion novel patriarchal possession Prince Prince's Priscilla reader relation represents resistance reveals ritual rivalry role romance Rosedale sacrifice Selden sense sentimental silence social languages society speak struggle subversive suggests suicide symbolic Terry Castle Trenor University Press Verver violence voice Wharton woman women word Zenobia