Herspace: Women, Writing, and Solitude (Haworth Innovations in Feminist Studies) (Haworth Innovations in Feminist Studies)

This collection delves deeply into the power of solitude in a richly detailed exploration of the lives of women writers! The essays in this fascinating volume combine literary theory, autobiography, performance, and criticism, while opening minds and expanding concepts of women's roles both in the home and within academia along the way. Herspace: Women, Writing, and Solitude begins with a discussion of the importance of solitude to the works of a variety of writers, including Margaret Atwood, May Sarton, Virginia Woolf, Marguerite Duras, and Zora Neale Hurston, and then moves on to an.;Section 1. Women theorizing herspace -- solitude and writing -- section 2. Women's writing spaces -- solitude and the creative process -- section 3. Women writing herspace -- personal takes on home. This collection delves deeply into the power of solitude in a richly detailed exploration of the lives of women writers! The essays in this fascinating volume combine literary theory, autobiography, performance, and criticism, while opening minds and expanding concepts of women's roles both in the home and within academia along the way. Herspace: Women, Writing, and Solitude begins with a discussion of the importance of solitude to the works of a variety of writers, including Margaret Atwood, May Sarton, Virginia Woolf, Marguerite Duras, and Zora Neale Hurston, and then moves on to an examination of the actual solitary spaces of women writers. The book concludes with the stories of modern women asserting their right to a space of their own. These essays, full of pain and new growth, lessons learned and battles fought, resound with the honesty and courage the authors have found in the process of truly making their own homes. Herspace examines: the stereotyped spinster solitude as a process and a journey women's prison literature cars, empty nests, kitchen counters, and other found spaces for writing the meaning of a home of one's own creating beauty in solitary settings Contributors to Herspace have made a conscious effort to integrate the personal with the academic, and the result is a volume of surprising intimacy, a window into the world of women writers past and present actively engaging solitude. From finding and defining the muse to the identity issues of home ownership, Herspace, which includes Jan Wellington's essay "What to Make of Missing Children (A Life Slipping into Fiction)," (winner of the 2003 NCTE Donald Murray Prize for "the best creative essay about teaching and/or writing published during the preceding year") provides you with the perspectives of women who are living these issues. As the editors write: "The solitary space itself enables the writing process, protects it. And women, more than men, need this enabling protection. Women need to claim their own space, to bargain and plan and keep out of sight that solitary space in which to commune with their thoughts and feelings, to experience their creative process intimately." Herspace explores these women's experiences, revealing the unique creativity that comes from solitude. Machine generated contents note: About the Editors vii Contributors ix Acknowledgments xiii Introduction 1 Jo Malin SECTION I: WOMEN THEORIZING HERSPACE- SOLITUDE AND WRITING 19 1. Women Alone: The Spinster's Art 21 Suzette A. Henke 2. With Sure and Uncertain Footing: Negotiating the Terrain of a Solitude in May Sarton's Journals 39 Lisette Schillig 3. Unknown Women: Secular Solitude in the Works of Alice Koller and May Sarton 73 Christina Pugh 4. A Veritable Guest to Her Own Self 95 Lisa Johnson 5. Woolf, Hurston, and the House of Self 105 Kristina Deffenbacher 6. The Domestic Politics of Marguerite Duras 123 Annabelle Cone SECTION II: WOMEN'S WRITING SPACES- SOLITUDE AND THE CREATIVE PROCESS 143 7. Writing Women, Solitary Space, and the Ideology of Domesticity 147 Victoria Boynton 8. Car, Kitchen, Canyon: Mother Writing 165 Claudia Mon Pere 9. Between the Study and the Living Room: Writing Alone and with Others 179 Eleanor Berry SECTION III: WOMEN WRITING HERSPACE- PERSONAL TAKES ON HOME 201 10. What to Make of Missing Children (A Life Slipping into Fiction) 205 Jan Wellington 11. The Little Gray House and Me 231 Claudia A. Limbert 12. The Colors and the Light 239 Maria Brown 13. A Woman's Place 245 Anne Mamary 14. Reframing My Life 261 Mary Rose 15. An &/or Peace Performance 275 H. Kassia Fleisher &/or Joe Amato Afterword 283 Victoria Boynton. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Herspace Women, Writing, and Solitude 5 Title Page 7 Copyright Page 8 Table of Contents 9 About the Editors 11 Contributors 13 Acknowledgments 17 Introduction 18 Section I: Women Theorizing Herpace—Solite and Writing 36 1. Women Alone: The Spinster’s Art 38 2. With Sure and Uncertain Footing: Negotiating the Terrain of a Solitude in May Sarton’s Journals 56 3. Unknown Women: Secular Solitude in the Works of Alice Koller and May Sarton 90 4. A Veritable Guest to Her Own Self 112 5. Woolf, Hurston, and the House of Self 122 6. The Domestic Politics of Marguerite Duras 140 Section II: Women’s Writting Spaces—Solitude and the Creative Process 160 7. Writing Women, Solitary Space, and the Ideology of Domesticity 164 8. Car, Kitchen, Canyon: Mother Writing 182 9. Between the Study and the Living Room: Writing Alone and with Others 196 Section III: Women Writing Herpace—Personal Takes on Home 218 10. What to Make of Missing Children (A Life Slipping into Fiction) 222 11. The Little Gray House and Me 248 12. The Colors and the Light 256 13. A Woman’s Place 262 14. Reframing My Life 278 15. An &/or Peace Performance 292 Afterword 300

Virginia Woolf famously called for a room of one's own as a necessary prerequisite for a woman's ability to write and express herself. Malin (English, State U. of New York at Binghamton) and Boynton (English, State U. of New York at Cortland) present 14 essays and one poem that explore the relationships between women, writing, solitude, and space. The essays theorize on solitude and writing or offer personal reflections on authors' experiences with writing or their relationships to their homes. Annotation ©2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

One cannot begin to touch the Stabat Mater-the image of woman as specular object, the invaginated container of masculine seed and male fantasy.