Rebellion

LITERATURE

"'The Pervasive Theme is Rebellion.'

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich begins her... book, 'Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History,' struggling to explain — understand — the appeal of an aside she made in the spring 1976 issue of an academic journal, a comment that has become a popular slogan printed on T-shirts and coffee mugs and bumper stickers, usually without her permission and often without attribution.

It was in an article for 'American Quarterly,' about the pious and extremely well-behaved colonial women described by Cotton Mather as “the hidden ones,” that Ulrich made her now familiar observation. Her study of wives and mothers and daughters as they were remembered in funeral eulogies, the sole record of women who lived and labored in silent obscurity, illustrates a critical point. Much of what is characterized as female 'misbehavior' is a matter of voice — of a woman insisting she be heard, paid not only attention, but also the respect due a being as fully human and necessary as a man..." (Harrison, September 30, 2007) 

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I have been intrigued with the portrayal of women in literature, especially when the portrayal is being done by a woman, ever since high school when I first read Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own.   

When I read  Woolf's A Room of One's Own, I became aware of the contradiction between women in literature and women in reality.Woolf exposed the fact that different works of literature convey women with the "utmost importance...as great as a man." In reality they were "beaten and flung around rooms." I was fascinated by the extreme difference. Although, the extended essay reflected upon a different era, it is still relevant to us today.    

As a result of my interest in the portrayal of women I am eager to read Ulrich's "Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History." It sounds like it will be a wonderful read. 

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