Proceedings of National Seminar on Postmodern Literary <strong>Theory</strong> and Literature , Jan. 27-28, 2012, NandedPhilological Quarterly, Iowa City, Fall1998. Vol. 77, Issue 4, pp. 439-460.6. Ibid.7. Ibid.8. See Philip Page's ReclaimingCommunity in Contemporary AfricanAmerican Fiction Jackson: UniversityPress of Mississippi, 1999, p – 166.9. Ibid, p – 170.10. Ibid, p – 184References:Cowart, David. "Matriarchal Mythopoesis:Naylor's Mama Day". PhilologicalQuarterly, Iowa City, Fall 1998. Vol. 77,Issue 4, pp 439-460.Levin, Amy K. Africanism and Authenticityin African American Women's Novels.Gainesville: University Press of Florida,2003.Naylor, Gloria. Mama Day. New York:Vintage, 1988.Naylor, Gloria. The Women of BrewsterPlace. New York: Penguin, 1982.Page, Philip. Reclaiming Community inContemporary African American Fiction.Jackson: University Press of Mississippi,1999.Tucker, Lindsay."Recovering the ConjureWoman: Contexts in Gloria Naylor's MamaDay". African American Review. BlackWomen's Culture Issue, Summer, 1994.295 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
Proceedings of National Seminar on Postmodern Literary <strong>Theory</strong> and Literature , Jan. 27-28, 2012, Nanded<strong>An</strong> Artist at Heart in ‘Doll’s House’--Dr. Tasneem <strong>An</strong>jumPratibha Niketan College, NandedFreud argues that a woman, deprived of malegenitals,suffers from penis-envy, a feeling that she isa ‘mutilated man’ which leads her to seek anintellectual career. He adds that a women’s careercan often be recognized as a sublimated modificationof this repressed wish. Simone-de Beauvoircondemns Freud’s theory of penis-envy as ananomaly which fails to distinguish emotion fromsexuality and states that the regret not to have a penisis not generally found in girls 1 . Ashley Montagurefutes Freud’s charge and holds that, on the contrary,it is men who feel jealous of women’s ability tomenstruate and procreate 2 . Betty Freidan terms theFreudan theory about women absolescent, an obstacleto truth for women as it twists ‘the memory of thefeminists into the man-eating phantom of thefeminine mystique 3 .The career of a woman leads to independenceof mind and character which make her into acompetent mother and an efficient home-maker.Margaret Sangers wonders how a slavish mother cantrain up her child freely; ‘A free race cannot be bornto slave mothers’ 4 . Gender is not as important as thetenacity and tendency of an individual who feels andacts in his/ her unique way and whose love and lifeare beyond the mere combination of genitals, ovariesand hormones. While appealing to men recognizewomen as rational companions and ‘essentials’, BettyFriedan calls upon women who have intrinsic talent inart and literature to erase all shades of mystique bydeveloping self consciousness and propping their ownperception and sensibility.Sensibility is the interaction of the self withthe external world through the senses; it is perceptionof objects sensuously and storing up of the gatheredimpressions, which, when filtered, become a part ofthe writer’s consciousness. These engravings workon the thought-processes of a writer, leading him/ herin the direction of literary creation. Artisticendeavors are beyond the differentiation of biologicalfactors. Virginia Woolf says: ’If one is a man, stillthe woman-part of the brain must have effect, and awoman also must have intercourse with the man inher. It is when this fusion takes place that the mind isfully fertilized and uses all its faculties. Perhaps amind that is purely masculine cannot create any morethan a mind that is purely feminine’ 5 .Some find a strange similarity between thepenis and the pen inspite of their different modes ofcreation-- biological and literary. Women cannot risebeyond their sex mentally and emotionally, as long asthe invidious distinctions and gender-differentiatedpatterns exist. Kate Millet says: ‘Because of oursocial circumstances, male and female are really twocultures and their experiences are utterlydifferent…” 6 . Men and women represent two distinctclasses of humans, the intensity of feelings and rangeof thoughts of one being different from those of theother. Women writers, hence, should approach, think,feel, depict and offer solutions to the numerousproblems of life from the female point of view. Whenmen glorify themselves into literary heroes bynarcissism, why cannot women break the femininemystique by recognizing themselves as cogent andoriginal writers?For instance, male-writers do not havesubjective experiences regarding child-birth, nor arethey aware of the conflicts and problems involved inraising children. What is wrong if some women-poetsdelineate their sexuality, menstruation or motherhoodwhen it forms the precious specialty of women? Theyare valid subjects for literary expression. Womenshould penetrate into their passionate experiences andexpress them freely, overcoming their secret fears.Readers should be made to feel what it is to be awoman through the use of modified images andmyths. A woman-writer has to face a challengewhichever way she opts. If she is unassertive anduncertain her conscience pricks her for identity andrecognition and in case she is dogmatic andperemptory, she may be jeered at and isolated. EmilyDickinson, Emily Bronte, Christina Rossetti and AmyLowell withdrew into their lives. As Virginia Woolfputs it; ‘… it needs little skill in psychology to be surethat a highly gifted girl who had tried to use her giftfor poetry would have been so thwarted and hinderedby other people, so tortured and pulled asunder by hercontrary instincts that she must have lost her healthand sanity…..’ 7 . Being unable to withstand the296 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1
Change language