Postmodern Feminist strategies

1
Postmodern Feminist strategies

• Bluebeards Egg as an Example

2
Feminisms

• 1. women's positions in patriarchal society and
  discourses
• 2. history of feminist movement writings
• 3. Feminisms and Gender Studies Radical
  Feminism, French Feminism, Post-Feminism,
  (Lesbian Feminism, Taiwanese Feminisms)
• 4. Postmodern Feminist strategies

3
Feminist strategies Examples

• Social/
• Theoretical in the 60s 70s
• Gender equality in public sphere
• A. Separatism, lesbianism
• B. Sexual Liberation

• Literary Criticism
• Sexual Politics in traditional lit. Androgyny
• A. Exclusive focus only on womens writings
• B. Celebrating femininity, feminine writing
  and desire

Gender Studies
4
Feminist Artistic strategies Some Examples

• Critiques reveal gender biases ??
• Empower female characters and their works
  Examples Granny Weatherall
• Celebrating femininity Discovering Female
  Desire The Piano Georgia O'Keeffe???
• feminine writing Films by Lea Pool and Rozema,
  poems by ??
• Revising tradition??
• Open accusation Barbara Kruger

5
Postmodern feminist literary strategies the use
of duality (2)

• Themes
• Construction of identity through relationships
  blurring of gender boundaries dual identity
  (???,The Piano).
• Alternative world Fantasies, magic realism,
  utopia or distopia
• Style revision of history or traditional texts,
  parody, mimicry and metafiction
• Dual language irony and ambiguity or feminine
  writing (subversive of binaries and fixed
  meanings).

6
Postmodern Feminist Artistic strategies Dual
language

• Open rebellion or ventriloquist and implicitly
  co-opting?
• Open accusation Barbara Kruger
  (accusationmimicry)????
• Revising male texts/tradition such as fairy tales
  to allow female space Atwoods Blue Beards
  Egg ???
• Irony Rape Fantasies ???
• Parody some feminist paintings??????
• Parody intertexuality Mermaids
• Mimicry Cindy Sherman, Madonna

7
"Bluebeard's Egg Backgroundthe fairy tales

• 1.the fairy tale "Blue Beard's Egg" p. 137
  wizard, three daughters, forbidden room, the egg
  an important symbol
• 2.the fairy-tale setting and the other motifs of
  fairy-tale or child play forest, sauce,
  playhouse, prehistoric windbreaker, games
  (Monopoly 132, Pick Up Sticks p. 145)
• egg fertility symbol forbidden
  area blood//womens loss of virginity
• revising the fairy-tale, and
  scrambling of the other fairy-tale elements.

8
"Bluebeard's Egg Backgroundthe marriage

• 3.Sally, the third wife of Ed. The previous two
  wive--reasons for departure unknown pp. 117 131
  
• 4.Ed, a heard doctor. --gt heart, another
  important symbol in this story

9
Sally's marriage 1 Her relationship with Ed

• 1.her view of Ed, her husband p. 116 (reversing
  the blonde tradition) p. 117 influenced by
  fairy-tales and murder mysteries
• 2.insecure about her identity, but actually
  strong and patronizing/mothering the men around
  her 122-23
• 3.her relation with Ed. 118 Ed as the center of
  her life
• 4.worry about her being a "nothing" like Marilyn
  in marriage p. 122

10
Sally's marriage 2 Sally's worries,
misunderstanding and misgiving. . .

• I. in terms of fairy-tale motifs
• p. 121-- the other women and Sally's worries
• p. 130--The women will chew him up. (A reversal
  of the Bluebeard plot)
• Ed like a Russian doll 133
• wandering in a forest--like Hans or the Little
  Red-Riding Hood who gets lucky? 133
• the ice-made house breaking apart 134

11
Sally's marriage 3 Clues to Ed's hypocrisy

• Eds stupidity or indifference?
• pp. 117, 125 indifferent to her
• e.g. the heart machine episode p. 128
• p. 129-- mechanical love-making
• Marilyn's remarks p. 120 (Ed as a shiny button)
  p. 142 (getting a seeing-eye dog for him)

12
Sally's growth (or initiation)1. Feminist ideas
emerging in Sally

• take courses to interest Ed, 125 real reason to
  distract herself from him 134
• Her joke about heart surgery 126.
• Her reading of the fairy-tale on p. 137
• Sally is asked to revise the story of Bluebeard.

13
Sally's growth (or initiation)2. Turning point

• The party Sally prepares the meal while thinking
  about Ed as the egg p. 140
• the discovery p. 144
• Multiple interpretations 1. Really happened?
• 2. Ed intoxicated? 3. "Possibly Ed is not stupid.
  Possibly he is enormously clever." (145)

14
Sally's growth (or initiation)Turning point
fairy-tale

• forbidden area
• Ed as the egg
• p. 140

• Actually filled with chopped up women.
• Ed being the womanizer

15
Sally's growth (or initiation)3. ambiguous ending

• a heart--in black and white-- that will go on and
  on, over which she has no control.
• an egg which suggests new possiblities