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From: marla@lucerne.Eng.Sun.COM (Marla Parker)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: great books?
Message-ID: <132852@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>
Date: 13 Mar 90 01:22:58 GMT
References: <1263@male.EBay.Sun.COM> <10965@june.cs.washington.edu>
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In article <10965@june.cs.washington.edu> twinsun!june.cs.washington.edu!amy (Amy Martindale) writes:
>....
>I got started in this direction when I noticed Carolyn G. Heilbrun's
>_Writing_a_Woman's_Life_ in the bookstore.  "That's Amanda Cross!"

I enthusiastically second this recommendation.  I'm glad to hear that
_Writing_a_Woman's_Life_ is short because I want to read it before
sending Heilbrun fanmail about a book she wrote earlier,
_Reinventing_Womanhood_, which I found positively inspiring.

It is non-fiction and scholarly but I whizzed through it.  It is a
source of other titles to read, also, because at one point she analyzes
women by the sort of fiction they write.  She makes the point that most
of the protagonists created by women are male, but that protagonists
created by men may be male or female.  She speculates that this is
because it has been so hard for women to imagine other women, or 
sometimes even themselves, leading their own, independent existence
rather than existing as a supporting character in some man's life.

This book made me feel very literate because I had actually read
something of every author that she mentioned except one or two.
One of the exceptions was E.M.Forster, whose _A_Room_With_A_View_
she used as an example of an independent female protagonist created
by a male author.  After reading her analysis of this book,  I picked
up feminist commentary in the text that was not obvious in the movie,
although the movie is surprisingly faithful to the book considering
it was written in 1909.  Usually books and movies are so different.
In this case, both are great.


Marla Parker		(415) 336-2538
marla@sun.com