A Vicious Circle: How Canon Continues to Reinforce Sex Segregation in Literature in the 21st century

• Authors: Miernik Mirosław

Title variants

PL

Błędne koło, czyli jak kanon literacki wymusza segregację płciową w literaturze XXI wieku

• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

This article demonstrates how sex segregation is still present in the canon of Western literature in the 21st century. It draws on the historical roots of the belief that male literature is qualitatively better than female literature and analyzes the various ways in which this view is reproduced by the canon and canon formation itself. The argument is based on a statistical survey of several lists trying to present the “best novel” or “works of fiction” that were published around the turn of the millennium, both those prepared by readers as well as by critics and authors, and it takes note of the tendency of people from the literary establishment to neglect female authorship. A survey of how male and female authors are categorized on the Wikipedia is also included. The article then focuses on such problematic issues as dismissing works written by women as popular and the role the publishing industry plays in this practice.

PL

Artykuł omawia sposób, w jaki podział na literaturę męską i kobiecą jest podtrzymywany w kanonie literatury anglosaskiej w XXI w. Literatura kobieca jest nadal postrzegana jako gorsza i wtórna w stosunku do literatury pisanej przez mężczyzn i dla mężczyzn oraz powszechnie klasyfikowana jako literatura popularna. Artykuł podaje przykłady takiej redukcjonistycznej krytyki, dokonuje statystycznego przeglądu obecności kobiet na listach mających ustanawiać „najlepsze” powieści w historii bądź w XX wieku i analizuje częstotliwość kategoryzowania pisarzy w Wikipedii pod kątem płci.

Keywords

EN

women's writing; canon; canon formation; sexism

• Publisher: Wydział Neofilologii, Uniwersytet Warszawski
• Journal: Acta Philologica
• Year: 2015
• Issue: 47
• Pages: 85-96

Contributors

author

Miernik Mirosław

• Uniwersytet Warszawski

References

• Allen, Jamie, “The top 100?” CNN. Cable News Network, 6 May 1999. Web. 2 Dec. 2014.
• Anonymous. “Dick Lit Books: 9 Male Authors who Write about Love.” Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc., 26 Jul. 2012. Web. 2 Dec. 2014.
• Baym, Nina. “Melodramas of Beset Manhood: How Theories of American Fiction Exclude Women Authors.” American Quarterly 33.2 (1981): 123–139.
• Bloom, Harold. The Western Canon. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1990.
• Delbanco, Andrew. Melville. New York: Vintage Books, 2006.
• Faulkner, William. “At Washington & Lee University.” Faulkner at Virginia. Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia. Web. 30 Jun. 2015.
• Filipacchi, Amanda. “Wikipedia’s Sexism Toward Female Novelists.” New York Times. The New York Times Company, 25 Apr. 2013. Web. 2 Dec. 2014.
• Gross, Terry. “Novelist Jonathan Franzen.” NPR. NPR, 15 Oct. 2001. Web. 2 Dec. 2014.
• Guillory, John. Cultural Capital: The Problem of Canon Formation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993.
• Hudson, Shane. “Interview with Kelley Armstrong – Fantasy Fiction Novelist.” Source Circuit. 18 Apr. 2009. Web. 6 Feb. 2015.
• Kirkpatrick, David D. “A Literary Award for Stephen King.” The New York Times. 15 Sept. 2003. Web. 3 Jun. 2015.
• Lowry, Richard S. Littery Man. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.
• Miller, Laura. “Book Lovers’ Quarrel.” Salon. Salon Media Group, Inc, 26 Oct. 2001. Web. 2 Dec. 2014.
• Pearson, Jesse. “Harold Bloom.” Vice. 2 Dec. 2008. Web. 30 Jun. 2015.
• “Pen Name.” jkrowling.com. J. K. Rowling. Web. 21 Mar. 2015.
• Purves, Alan C. “The Ideology of Canons and Cultural Concerns in the Literary Curriculum.” Multicultural Literature and Literacies: Making Space for Difference. Eds. Suzanne M. Miller and Barbara McCaskill. Albany: State of New York Press, 1993.
• Redfield, Marc. “Literature Incorporated: Harold Bloom, Theory, and the Canon.” Historicizing Theory. Ed. Paul C. Herman. Albany: State of New York Press, 2004.
• Robinson, Lillian S. In Canon’s Mouth: Dispatches from the Culture Wars. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1997.
• Roth, Phillip. Exit Ghost. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2007.
• Thomson, Irene Taviss. Culture Wars and Enduring American Dilemmas. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2010.
• Tuchman, Gaye, and Nina E. Fortin. “Fame and Misfortune: Edging Women Out of the Great Literary Tradition.” American Journal of Sociology 90.1 (1984): 72–96.
• Tuchman, Gaye, and Nina E. Fortin. “Edging Women out: Some Suggestions about the Structure of Opportunities and the Victorian Novel.” Signs 6.2 (1980): 308–325.
• Wood, James. “The Misreader.” New Republic. 1 May, 2006. Web. 30 Jun. 2015.
• Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One’s Own And Three Guineas. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
• Wickham, Sandra. “Women Destroying Urban Fantasy: An Interview with Carrie Vaughn and Kelley Armstrong.” Fantasy Magazine 58 (2014): n. pag. Web. 21 Mar. 2015.