Literature Review : Aphra Behn 's 1688 ' And Couto 's ' The Tuner Of Silences '

Evans continues to trace the evolution of women’s roles in society, which increasingly diverged from men’s roles-- for indigenous women as male-dominated war metaphors became more culturally central, and for Europeans as men grew very economically successful compared to

Ihara Saikaku’s Life of a Sensuous Woman written in the 17th century and Mary Woolstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman written in the 18th century are powerful literary works that advocated feminism during the time when women were oppressed members of our societies. These two works have a century old age difference and the authors of both works have made a distinctive attempt to shed a light towards the issues that nobody considered significant during that time. Despite these differences between the two texts, they both skillfully manage to present revolutionary ways women can liberate themselves from oppression laden upon them by the society since the beginning of humanity.

In Ihara Saikaku’s story, Life of a Sensuous Woman, and Mary Wollstonecraft’s work, “Vindication of the Rights of Woman”, the issue of double standards in gender are examined. Both pieces offer a perspective into the lives of women during their respective times and show how some standards that are considered favorable for men, are looked down upon for women. In particular, the two works examine how women were treated differently based on their education, their social status and even their sexual history. Saikaku looks at these issues in a different lens from Wollstonecraft, based on his experiences as a man living in Japan in the 17th century. Their experiences shape their works and show how the issue of double standards of gender span culture, time and geography.

In the modern world women work, vote, run for office and the list goes on. In most aspects, women are equal to men. However, this was not always the case. In centuries past, women were not viewed as being equal to men socially, intellectually, or politically and were thought incapable of accomplishing anything of value. Consequently, many cultures held the view that women were possessions whose only purpose was to be subservient to men. The view of women as mere objects is evident in various works of literature throughout the ages. Two classic works of literature that exemplify this are The Thousand and One Nights and Murasaki Shikibu’s The Tale of

The perception of inequality was evident in the colonial Spanish America, man belief that women were lacked in capacity to reason as soundly as men. A normal day for European women in the new world was generally characterized by male domination, for example marriage was arranged by the fathers, women never go out except to go church, women didn’t have the right to express their opinions about politic or society issues. Subsequent to all these bad treats European women try to find different ways to escape from man domination and demonstrate their intellectual capacities, for example women used become part of a convent, write in secret their desires and disappointments, and even dress as man to

Two vocabulary words that I will be defining from this chapter are mfecane and denatured viragos. The first vocabulary word, mfecane, means the breaking or crushing which refers to a series of wars and migrations in southern Africa. Then the second vocabulary word that I will be defining is denatured viragos which means the domineering women. “A woman should not leave her family to meddle in affairs of government.” Here was a conception of gender that defined masculinity in terms of exercising political power. Women who aspired to do so were, in words of one revolutionary orator, denatured viragos, in short, not really women at all.

Colonialism and Patriarchy are at the forefront of the novel Wide Sargasso Sea, both having similar ideology of cultural hierarchy and supremacy. For the empire, the native people are subjugated, subdued, and used. A woman, in this patriarchy, is chattel, an infant, with no inalienable rights than their guardian allows or deems worthy to bestow upon them. Wide Sargasso Sea had shown Mr. Mason ignore a woman’s wisdom when he dismissed his wife’s intuition about leaving the house of Calibri.

It must be said that men of power create the structure of life--which is not necessarily profitable or fitting to women, nor to the human race in its entirety. Women do not live in this structure:“They lead beautiful lives--women. Lives not only divorced from, but irrevocably excommunicated from, all reality” (156).

Since the beginning of the colonial process, Indigenous bodies have been seen as disposable. The dehumanization of the Indigenous body and the creation of the other, has allowed for the destruction of Indigenous Femininity. A system rooted in epistemic violence created by the colonial era. Continues to affect how Indigenous women are treated in modern societies. The demotion from “Indian Queen”, an exotic and powerful presence in colonial societies, to the “Dirty Squaw”, a figure depicted as lazy, and troublesome. Indigenous women have struggled to be seen as human people, rather than sexual object in the minds of the white settlers. A systematic dehumanization though through the process of epistemic violence. Which continues to affect how Indigenous women are treated today.

Furthermore, women are often seen as a symbol of cultural preservation and a measure of family honor. In conditions of war and colonial rule, which represents an attack on men’s honor and dignity, attention to women’s roles as prescribed by cultural tradition is often intensified. However, the unusual conditions of war and resistance to colonial rule also may provide openings for women to reconfigure their roles and rights, based on new needs of society.

In her poem “The Golden Age”, Aphra Behn divides nature from civilization, almost in a biblical sense of Eden and after-Eden. Nature and civilization are separated as a positive and negative experience where love is dishonoured, and sin takes over Earth. Through this before and after division, Behn shows how the fall of mankind led to the oppression of the female sex as woman, associated with love, kept the world pure until man, associated with honour, took over. Thus creating “Pleasure, Nature’s worst Disease” (148). When Nature is overpowered by civilization, gender issues arose. This division of gender issues sets women up to be a tease or object of pleasure rather than an equal lover who is free to her own sexuality. “The Golden Age” presents the fall of natural order with the rise of man.

If, in the context of colonial production, the subaltern has no history and cannot speak, the subaltern as female is even more deeply in shadow (287).

Aphra Behn’s novel, Oroonoko, gives a very different perspective on a slave narrative. Her characters embody various characteristics not usually given to those genders and races. Imoinda’s character represents both the modern feminist, as well as the subservient and mental characteristics of the typical eighteenth-century English woman. Oroonoko becomes an embodiment of what is normally a white man’s characteristic; he is the noble, princely, and sympathetic character that is not usually attributed to black men in general throughout most novels of slavery. The complete opposite character style is given to the slavers; the English are viewed as the barbaric, cunning, brutal characters that are usually portrayed in opposite and more generous

Oroonoko is a fascinating text overflowing with descriptions of complex relations between and within the different races. The attitudes and actions of the Aphra Behn and her characters would make for a rich analysis from any number of behavioral approaches, but there are many more layers to this story than the dominant racial themes. In fact, in "Oroonoko’s Blackness" Catherine Gallagher argues that the main character’s unusually dark skin color actually represents kingship, commodification, and the degree to which he and the author are embodied in the work. Though Gallagher recognizes the significance of Oroonoko’s ethnicity in the conflict between the African and European groups, she

Although described as a land of justice and honor, England within the 13th century French Romance, Silence, still very much adheres to its patriarchal roots of female belittlement and gender norms. This concept is most often illustrated through the degrading statements of the narrator, Heldris, and Nature herself, and the sexist actions and decrees of the romance’s glorified leader, King Evan. The oppression of women then allows for the perpetuation of harmful gender norms and ultimately restricts women from achieving their full potential, thus hindering their ability to obtain power.