NEW FEMALE VOICES

Role of women writers in shaping American literature

Abstract

The purpose of this assignment is to highlight the importance of women writers in the post-bellum era. During the Civil war, America literature included the perspectives of male writers only. As a result, the literature lacked feminine issues which made literature biased and incomplete. The women writers of post bellum era expanded the fields of literature by adding variety into the literature through stories, novels, political issues, music etc. However, despite the contributions of female writers, professional rivalry in literature did continue as male writers heavily criticized the writing style of females against their preconceived image of “good writers” or “artist”.

Table of Contents

Abstracti

Introduction1

Women writers of post bellum era (1865 to 1912)1

Influencing social factors (1865 to 1912)2

Role of female writers3

Sarah Orne Jewett3

Sarah Winnemucca3

Emma Lazarus4

Kate Chopin4

Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins4

Charlotte Perkins Gilman5

Edith Wharton5

Sui Sin Far (Edith Maude Eaton)5

Zitkala Sa (Gertrude Simmons Bonnin)6

Female Vs male perspective6

Male perspective7

Female perspective7

Conclusion8

The role of women writers in shaping American literature

Introduction

The period of 1865-1912 has played a significant role in changing the traditional American literature. This era has reconstructed the writings of the past and foreseen the future of literature in the West. Literature continued to develop and many new writers; including women writers entered the field of writing.

Waves of regionalism developed in the West and Mid-East. The concept of nationalism emerged and writers fall into two groups; American and non-American. Poetry because simpler and writers started using conversational language in the literature. Many new African American and indigenous voices also emerged like Paul Lawrence and Alexander Lawrence Posey.

Apart from this, realism and naturalism in literature started during this period. William Howells introduced American reflection in art and other fields so that the drastic changes of the late nineteenth century could be preserved in the literature (Halleck, 2004). The writers of that time believed that literary life of American culture should be included to make American literature completely independent and natural.

Furthermore, during the latter half of the nineteenth century, many contemporary women like Sarah Winnemucca, Kate Chopin, Emma Lazarus etc emerged which has drastically redesigned the history of literature.

Women writers of post bellum era (1865 to 1912)

Mark Twain has named the era of 1865-1900 as “The Gilded Age”. The emergence of women writers in American literature can be traced back to the civil war, when Catharine Maria Sedgwick and Harriet Beecher Stowe got the authorship and chose writing as a respectable profession for women. But, despite producing exceptionally good and famous work they faced severe criticism by people who labeled them as educators and business women. However, after the civil war some other women entered this field and began to challenge the men's image of an artist and chose writing career as a mean to shape the existing American literature that talked about wars, heroism, bravery and political issues only. Louisa May Alcott, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps and Elizabeth Stoddard were the woman writers whose work was studied by Writing for Immortality. Their work is not only compatible to men's work but, they have fought for a space in the American Literature for ...