Reading Women's Worlds From Christine De Pizan to Doris Lessing : A Guide to Six Centuries of Women Writers Imagining Rooms of Their Own

Reading Women's Worlds From Christine De Pizan To Doris Lessing Explores A Recurring Theme In Writing By Women: The Dream Of Finding Or Creating A Private And Secluded Retreat From The World Of Men. These Imagined Women's Worlds May Be Very Small, A Single Room Even, Or May Be More Ambitious, Such As The Dream Of An Entire Country Created For And Inhabited Exclusively By Women. Sharon L. Jansen Places These Texts In Conversation With One Another, Pairing Them In Ways That Reveal The Writers' Distinctive Voices Even While They Speak Of The Dream They Share. Reading Nafisi At The Ymca -- I Have A Dream: Christine De Pizan's The Book Of The City Of Ladies And Virginia Woolf's A Room Of One's Own -- We Need To Talk: Conversation In Moderata Fonte's The Worth Of Women And Marjane Satrapi's Embroideries -- Design For Living: Women's Communities In Margaret Cavendish's The Convent Of Pleasure And Mary Astell's A Serious Proposal To The Ladies -- Paradise Lost: Men In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland And Doris Lessing's The Cleft -- Hell Hath No Fury: Rage In Arcangela Tarabotti's Paternal Tyranny And Valerie Solanas's Scum Manifesto -- Madwomen In The Attic: Madness And Suicide In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper And Doris Lessing's To Room Nineteen -- Brave New Worlds: Sexual Slavery In Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale And Slavenka Drakulic's S. A Novel About The Balkans -- Still Crazy After All These Years: Azar Nafisi's Reading Lolita In Tehran. Sharon L. Jansen. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Cover......Page 1 Title......Page 4 Copyright......Page 5 Dedication......Page 6 Contents......Page 8 List of Figures......Page 9 Acknowledgments......Page 10 1 Reading Nafisi at the YMCA......Page 12 2 I Have a Dream: Christine de Pizan’s The Book of the City of Ladies and Virginia Woolf ’s A Room of One’s Own......Page 20 3 We Need to Talk: Conversation in Moderata Fonte’s The Worth of Women and Marjane Satrapi’s Embroideries......Page 54 4 Design for Living: Women’s Communities in Margaret Cavendish’s The Convent of Pleasure and Mary Astell’s A Serious Proposal to the Ladies......Page 82 5 Paradise Lost: Men in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland and Doris Lessing’s The Cleft......Page 112 6 Hell Hath No Fury: Rage in Arcangela Tarabotti’s Paternal Tyranny and Valerie Solanas’s SCUM Manifesto......Page 140 7 Madwomen in the Attic: Madness and Suicide in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Doris Lessing’s “To Room Nineteen”......Page 172 8 Brave New Worlds: Sexual Slavery in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Slavenka Drakulic’s S. A Novel about the Balkans......Page 198 9 Still Crazy after All These Years: Azar Nafi si’s Reading Lolita in Tehran......Page 224 Bibliography......Page 234 Index......Page 248 Cover 1 Title 4 Copyright 5 Dedication 6 Contents 8 List of Figures 9 Acknowledgments 10 1 Reading Nafisi at the YMCA 12 2 I Have a Dream: Christine de Pizan’s The Book of the City of Ladies and Virginia Woolf ’s A Room of One’s Own 20 3 We Need to Talk: Conversation in Moderata Fonte’s The Worth of Women and Marjane Satrapi’s Embroideries 54 4 Design for Living: Women’s Communities in Margaret Cavendish’s The Convent of Pleasure and Mary Astell’s A Serious Proposal to the Ladies 82 5 Paradise Lost: Men in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland and Doris Lessing’s The Cleft 112 6 Hell Hath No Fury: Rage in Arcangela Tarabotti’s Paternal Tyranny and Valerie Solanas’s SCUM Manifesto 140 7 Madwomen in the Attic: Madness and Suicide in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Doris Lessing’s “To Room Nineteen” 172 8 Brave New Worlds: Sexual Slavery in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Slavenka Drakulic ̇’s S. A Novel about the Balkans 198 9 Still Crazy after All These Years: Azar Nafi si’s Reading Lolita in Tehran 224 Bibliography 234 Index 248 0230110665,9780230110663 Palgrave Macmillan, 2011 In this work, Jansen explores a recurring theme in writing by women: the dream of finding or creating a private and secluded retreat from the world of men. These imagined "women's worlds" may be very small, a single room, for example, but many women writers are much more ambitious, fantasizing about cities, even entire countries, created for and inhabited exclusively by women