Spelling out the female
The Scarlet Letter presents a particular view of female morality – here are some others.
THE Scarlet Letter, written in 1850, by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of those books that I have mixed feelings about.
On the one hand, it was progressive for its time. Hester Prynne, a young woman who lives in the 17th century Puritan colony in Boston, is vilified for the sin of adultery by her community when she gives birth to a daughter through an affair. The book redefines notions of sin and morality, by questioning the line between the two.
In many ways though, The Scarlet Letter is also very much a product of its era, and of a distinctly male view of female empowerment and sexuality. Hester’s redemption for her transgression, as depicted by Hawthorne, lies in living a life of humility and repentance – never mind that the adultery she committed was under the mistaken belief that her husband had died at sea.
The Scarlet Letter remains essential reading today, if only for the fact that we largely have not left behind outmoded ideas of female morality. Women are still disproportionately judged for their choices when it comes to sex. More horrifyingly, even today in many parts of the world, the treatment of Hester wouldn’t seem out of the ordinary.
The book, however, did get me thinking about other authors who present alternate views of female sexuality, views that go beyond that of morality. And so here, I’d like to give you a list of books, written by female authors, that each complicate, LIZZIE Borden – a Victorian New Englander tried and acquitted for the ax-murders of her stepmother and father – whetted our national appetite for tales of violent death. The swarming press and salacious public made her the O.J. Simpson of her day.
She is memorialized in the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast Museum in Fall River, Massachussetts, where the crime stunned and stimulated a nation. The scene – skulls crushed among a prim, well-to-do family – defiled our cherished sense of domesticity.
And – 125 years later – she lingers in the jump-rope chant:
“Lizzie Borden took an ax, / And gave her mother forty whacks. / When she saw what she had done, / She gave her father forty-one.”
Our fascination continues partly because the mystery was never solved, the murder weapon never found. Its chief suspect shattered Victorian notions of the feminine. The public could barely imagine a woman, let alone a daughter, capable of poisoning – certainly never a bloody, effortful chopping. Scholars believe this failure of imagination helped land Lizzie her acquittal.
Now comes Sarah Schmidt, a clever Australian, whose imagination does not fail. She keeps the reader guessing about Lizzie’s innocence until the final seven words. See What I Have Done isa barn-burning, fever-ridden first novel. It makes blistering reading redefine, celebrate and illuminate various ideas of female sexuality.
Delta Of Venus (1977) by Anais Nin – A pioneering work of female sex-positivity, this collection of erotic short stories are elevated by Nin’s lush prose and underlying ideas that go far beyond just titillation.
Who Fears Death (2010)by Nnedi Okorafor – Set in a post-apocalyptic version of Sudan, this fantasy novel grapples with heavy themes like rape and oppression. Magical power is used as an allegory for female sexuality – such as one particularly disturbing scene where the lead character is subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM), which robs her of her magic.
Gone Girl (2014) by Gillian Flynn – Gone Girl has been controversial for its portrayal of women – some find the psychopathic lead female to be a misogynistic portrayal, while others hail Flynn’s creation as a nuanced examination of modern female sexuality.
The Bell Jar (1963) by Sylvia Plath – Plath’s examination of sexuality in 1950s America is uncomfortable and unflinching. As the lines between sex and violence get increasingly blurred, the novel exposes the darker sides of the double standard that exists for men and women.
The Thousand Faces Of Night (1992) by Githa Hariharan – This novel reframes traditional ideas of female identity and sexuality by connecting the lives of three generations Author: Sarah Schmidt Publisher: out of first-rate historical fiction, which must walk the tightrope of established facts while fashioning a story anew. Hilary Mantel, in her brilliant re-creation of Thomas Cromwell in Wolf Hall and Bringing Up the Bodies , may be the best practitioner alive, but this book heralds Schmidt as a new sister in the craft.
She begins without clearing her throat. The first chapter is “Lizzie, August 4, 1892,” and the first two sentences are “He was still, bleeding. I yelled, ‘Someone’s killed Father.’ ” Father is Andrew Borden, 69, a prosperous and stingy property owner who lived the entirety of his life in Fall River. The narrator is Lizzie.
Schmidt stays entirely in the of women in Chennai, India, to the myths of the Ramayana and Mahabharata.
The Hate U Give (2017) by Angie Thomas – This young adult novel centres on an African-American teenaged girl who witnesses the shooting of her best friend by a police officer. In telling the story of a teenaged girl, the book takes a frank and positive approach to female sexual desire.
The Complete Claudine (19001903) by Colette – Written as a diary, these stories of a 15-year-old French girl as she matures into womanhood are a fun, frisky, and ultimately honest look at the many facets of being a young woman.
Americanah (2013) by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – Sexuality, both male and female, is an essential part of this novel on identity, migration, and gender dynamics, where a young teenaged couple in Nigeria face separation voices of Lizzie and three more narrators: Emma Borden, Lizzie’s older sister by a decade; Bridget Sullivan, the family’s Irish live-in maid; and Benjamin, a violent drifter and Schmidt’s fictional creation. He is a bold stroke, and gives the author a quasi-witness outside the Borden home.
See What I Have Done is the perfect title – it might be a command from any of these speakers. The reader dwells for hundreds of pages in the claustrophobic house at 92 Second St., in the oppressive August heat and in the churning, unhappy minds of this quartet. Before the book steps off, Schmidt plucks an aphorism from another famous New England spinster, Emily Dickinson: “We outgrow and reunion over the course of their growing up.
The One Hundred Nights Of Hero: A Graphic Novel (2016) by Isabel Greenberg – Set in a fantastical world where female expression and sexuality are suppressed, this graphic novel suggests that gaining control of their own stories may be one way for women to find freedom.
Fledgling (2005) by Octavia Butler – Butler excels at using speculative fiction to engage with modern politics. In her final novel, she uses the story of Shori, a 53-yearold vampire who looks like a 10-year-old girl, to explore race relations, marginalised communities, and sexuality.
Sharmilla Ganesan is reading her way through the titles in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. Join the conversation at facebook.com/ BeBookedOut or Tweet @SharmillaG. love like other things / And put it in thedrawer .”
The Bordens are not merely loveless, their household seethes with malevolence. They practise all kinds of cruelties, some unintentional. Their days are filled with tedium; rancid mutton broth simmers and splashes in the kitchen. The roof creaks and pops and is a roost for Lizzie’s pet pigeons, which have their part to play.
Schmidt salts her book with repetition, casting an incantatory spell. And the writing is vivid to the point of hallucination.
Over and over, the mantel clock tick-ticks, a descendant of Edgar Allan Poe’s Tell-Tale Heart .Itis dark indeed. – Newsday/Tribune News Service