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130th out of 580 books
—
753 voters
How to Suppress Women's Writing
by
Joanna Russ
By the author of The Female Man, a provocative survey of the forces that work against women who dare to write.
"She didn't write it. She wrote it but she shouldn't have. She wrote it but look what she wrote about. She wrote it but she isn't really an artist, and it isn't really art. She wrote it but she had help. She wrote it but she's an anomaly. She wrote it BUT..." How t...more
"She didn't write it. She wrote it but she shouldn't have. She wrote it but look what she wrote about. She wrote it but she isn't really an artist, and it isn't really art. She wrote it but she had help. She wrote it but she's an anomaly. She wrote it BUT..." How t...more
Paperback, 160 pages
Published
January 1st 1983
by University of Texas Press
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What an education! This book had a huge influence on me as a young writer, an introduction to a conversation that continues to this day, the ways in which the world has tripped up the creative woman, diminished her, sidetracked and sidelined her. In the process, the book rescues many of these neglected artists from oblivion. (I'm reminded very much of the similar project in women's visual arts that resulted in the founding of the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC, the rescue...more
After years of running across references to How to Suppress Women's Writing, I have finally read it. (The timing on my acquiring and reading the book and my involvement in certain online arguments that I've stumbled upon lately about how sexism really still exists, no, really is probably not coincidental.)
ANYWAY. About the book. First off, it's a lit crit book with everything that that implies. For those of us without the heavy-duty lit background, this means the reading will be slow. Interestin...more
ANYWAY. About the book. First off, it's a lit crit book with everything that that implies. For those of us without the heavy-duty lit background, this means the reading will be slow. Interestin...more
If you have ever wondered as a woman writer what your place in the tradition is, or wondered how to ask the perennial chauvinist questions "well why aren't there more women writers?" this book will help resolve the questions in your own mind and arm you in arguments. The first 100 or so pages of this book are the strongest as far as rhetoric goes. The latter half is more along the lines of literary criticism. While Russ acknowledges the limits of her research and her argument (including an after...more
If you believe that women (and other minorities) have been oppressed over the years in terms of their production of art, you should read this book to gain a deeper understanding of how it has been done as, well as why.
If you are unconvinced about women (and other minorities) being oppressed in terms of their art, you should read this book. You will be confronted with some interesting evidence via reviews, in particular, that might challenge your point of view.
If you're in a minority and interest...more
If you are unconvinced about women (and other minorities) being oppressed in terms of their art, you should read this book. You will be confronted with some interesting evidence via reviews, in particular, that might challenge your point of view.
If you're in a minority and interest...more
I still refer frequently in conversation to facts gleaned from this book --about the diversity in reception of the Brontes, in particular, and about the practice of anthologizing, where the percentage of women represented in anthologies remains constant, largely because women writers are never ADDED to, but replaced with a new slate of writers from generation to generation, whereas their male counterparts are allowed to hold their place, despite the continued presence of a sizeable percentage of...more
A passionate, fairly concise polemic about the way in which women as writers are marginalised by academics, though also about the experience of minority erasure generally. Although towards the end it veered closer to micro-critiques of college course reading lists from over thirty years ago (I would be interested to know how much things have changed since), it's mostly full of wisdom and rage simultaneously. Numerous very good lines, including:
'The social invisibility of women's experience is no...more
'The social invisibility of women's experience is no...more
This is a re-read (of course!) made in preparation for a panel at Readercon dedicated to discussing it. It continues to be relevant, though as with every reading of books one reads and rereads over decades, it speaks to me differently now, and in some sense explains my decision to become a publisher (however deleterious that's proven to be to my writing career). Perhaps most striking, this time around, is the brilliance of Russ's rhetorical strategies and her superb mastery of the form in which...more
This should be required reading for all humans. If reading it doesn't make you angry, you're not paying attention.
This one belongs on the Feminist Classics shelf. I stumbled across a reference to it online, and was intrigued enough to order it through Inter-Library Loan, which should say something right there. A feminist classic about how women's writing is suppressed, written by a woman... that's unavailable at my local library? In Portland, Oregon, yet? So.
I don't know who said "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention" but after reading this, one suspects it was a woman writer.
Highly recomme...more
I don't know who said "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention" but after reading this, one suspects it was a woman writer.
Highly recomme...more
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"How To Suppress Women's Writing," by science fiction author Joanna Russ, is a look at the writing of women through history and how their work and words have been and continue to be marginalized.
Feminism and Feminists, have come under fire over the past few decades for some very good reasons. Namely, the narrow focus on white, affluent, educated, heterosexual, able bodied, cisgender, etc concerns. So I was nervous as I read a feminist book published in 1983. When would the shoe drop? When would...more
Feminism and Feminists, have come under fire over the past few decades for some very good reasons. Namely, the narrow focus on white, affluent, educated, heterosexual, able bodied, cisgender, etc concerns. So I was nervous as I read a feminist book published in 1983. When would the shoe drop? When would...more
Published in 1983. Five stars not because it's so well written, but because it is so important.
Thanks to Djinnjer on goodreads for the ff quote followed by her own good summary:
Russ: 'A mode of understanding life which willfully ignores so much can do so only at the peril of thoroughly distorting the rest. A mode of understanding literature which can ignore the private lives of half the human race is not "incomplete"; it is distorted through and through. Feminist criticism of the early 1970s beg...more
Thanks to Djinnjer on goodreads for the ff quote followed by her own good summary:
Russ: 'A mode of understanding life which willfully ignores so much can do so only at the peril of thoroughly distorting the rest. A mode of understanding literature which can ignore the private lives of half the human race is not "incomplete"; it is distorted through and through. Feminist criticism of the early 1970s beg...more
A great feminist tract. "Denial of agency: She didn't write it. Pollution of Agency: She shouldn't have written it. Double Standard of Content: Yes, but look what she wrote about. False Categorizing: She is not really she [an artist] and it is not really it [serious, of the right genre, aesthetically sound, important, etc.] so how could 'she' have written 'it?' Or simply: Neither 'she' nor 'it' exists..."
I'd like to copy the first chapter and pass it out to every female I know. The book isn't just about writing, but the difficulties in being a woman who wants more from her life than the stereotypical husband/children and how history is written by men.
I'm severely annoyed that I had never heard of this wonderful woman until her death. At least one English literature course should have mentioned her...
I'm severely annoyed that I had never heard of this wonderful woman until her death. At least one English literature course should have mentioned her...
This is probably the best book I read this year. I think almost everyone should read this book, not just women or readers of - ahem - "women writers" or SFF writers/readers, but anyone who has at any point attempted to express anything from a minority point of view, or to evaluate a piece of art without the reference points of majority culture, which I hope is everyone. And it's a great read.
If you're a woman writer and you haven't read this book yet, YOU SHOULD.
I finished this on my commute home from uni and it struck so many chords with me from my postgraduate struggle to be heard to my struggle as a writer. We don't realize how many patriarchal constructs still stick us in the mire or impede our progress/thinking. Even if you're an avowed feminist, it's good to be reminded.
I finished this on my commute home from uni and it struck so many chords with me from my postgraduate struggle to be heard to my struggle as a writer. We don't realize how many patriarchal constructs still stick us in the mire or impede our progress/thinking. Even if you're an avowed feminist, it's good to be reminded.
I was reminded of this book recently when I edited a book on US literature since 1950 and Joanna Russ was mentioned in the context of her science fiction writing. This book is a brilliant assessment of how women's writing has been belittled - it was a revelation to me when I read it in 1986 and lives on my "most important books" shelf.
Apr 18, 2009
Felicity
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Writers and readers, male and female
Shelves:
nonfiction,
feminism
A quick, basic overview of the ways women writers and their works have been denigrated and marginalized over time. That sounds depressing, but it's sharply written and an easy, accessible read. It's also an important read, because these 'techniques' are often unconscious and ingrained, and even those of us who are women and are writers are prone to falling into these patterns. It's extensively researched, and contains some interesting quotes and anecdotes from working writers.
While the book larg...more
While the book larg...more
1 like · like · see review
This was an assigned reading, or exerpts of it, in my Women's Studies classes at commnunity college when I was in my early 20's. Have forgotten it; would like to review it. I forgot it because I continued my education at a 4 year art school (prestigious)where I found feminism largely absent from my Writing courses.
This is a book that I plan on re-reading many, many times. I highly recommend it.
Russ writes specifically about the strategies that have been used against women authors but her insights apply more or less to members of other marginalized groups.
Russ writes specifically about the strategies that have been used against women authors but her insights apply more or less to members of other marginalized groups.
This book was so damn good! A hard-hitting analysis of how sexism and misogyny have impacted the history of women's writing. It simultaneously inflamed my feminist rage and made me feel better by reminding me that I'm not just crazy.
Brilliant, painful.
All my walls are lost in mirrors,
whereupon I trace
Self to right hand, self to left hand
self in every place
Self-same solitary figure,
self-same seeking face.
- Christina Rossetti
All my walls are lost in mirrors,
whereupon I trace
Self to right hand, self to left hand
self in every place
Self-same solitary figure,
self-same seeking face.
- Christina Rossetti
Easy flow. A feminist perspective on the marginalization of women's writing during the 1900s. A good book for those interested in feminist literary works.
A highly accessible analysis of how women's writing has been undermined and ignored, robbing us of a literary tradition.
Much more interesting than I expected it to be, with an argument that I'm still pondering. It made me very, very grateful for Lois McMaster Bujold and Connie Willis.
Utterly fucking brilliant. I hesitate to be melodramatic, but it's been a few weeks now, I've renewed it from the university library twice, and I may not be over-stating the case to say that this is one of the books that changes my life. It's genuinely altered how I think about criticism, I've got a to-read list that tripled in the period I was reading it, and I've been arguing with professors and blog commenters in a really different way than I used to. It just -- the experience of reading it w...more
Sadly, still a highly relevant book.
I confess to only reading half of this book, and I don't know how to rate it because while I think the content is good and important, the writing style was too irritating for me. There was a lack of flow, it often felt like the author was either throwing quotes around willy nilly, or gave a cursory context for them. The writing was unnecessarily verbose. This is one of those books I really expected to love, and my peers love, but I guess I just don't want to ever be reading literary essays.
Still amazed I didn't have a rage aneurism while reading this.
Thirty years after publication this book should be out of date! I know that the author agrees with me. She wrote so in "The Female Man" in the most beautiful ending a book ever had.
I'm sorry to say that too much of this book did make sense to me. I am thankful to be prepared to carefully consider reactions that might come my way... Here we go again, after all this years, still sad and angry.
My next read will be "Destiny Rewritten".
I'm sorry to say that too much of this book did make sense to me. I am thankful to be prepared to carefully consider reactions that might come my way... Here we go again, after all this years, still sad and angry.
My next read will be "Destiny Rewritten".
While in some ways this is rather dated (originally written in the late 70s and published in 1983) and the specific textual analysis and references are somewhat dry, it is still well worth reading. Everything she talks about is still true today. I wish she had written more about her experience as a woman writer of fantasy and science fiction, however. She was right in the middle of it and knew everyone, it seems.
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Joanna Russ was an American writer and feminist. She is the author of a number of works of science fiction, fantasy and feminist literary criticism and is best known for The Female Man, a novel combining utopian fiction and satire. It uses the device of parallel worlds as a form of a mediation of the ways that different societies might produce very different versions of the same person, and how al...more
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“I once asked a young dissertation writer whether her suddenly grayed hair was due to ill health or personal tragedy; she answered: “It was the footnotes”.”
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17 people liked it
“And middle-class women, although taught to value established forms, are in the same position as the working class: neither can use established forms to express what the forms were never intended to express (and may very well operate to conceal).”
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5 people liked it
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