I found this really interesting article on the Bronteblog just now. It is so interesting it makes me so impatient to get a hold of this book and read it. It basically deals with feminism, the Arab world, and works by Charlotte Bronte. I've heard of Charlotte Bronte's works being compared to post-colonial literature, especially that of the Indian subcontinent, but I didn't think there would be much out there about an Arab connection. This book seems promising in that it is filled with this very topic!
One of the reasons Charlotte Bronte's works resonate so strongly with me is that the time in which she wrote her novels is very much like the society in which I grew up. In this society, women are considered inferior, a burden. A single woman wishing to be independent, is considered dangerous: not only to her self (for she is believed to have such a feeble mind, susceptible to temptation), but to her family (who despair of getting her married), and her husband (who delights in being her superior). And then of course, there are so many RULES (religious, societal, filial) that she ought to follow. There is so much emphasis on restraint, that it is stifling. A woman must always be "kept down".
This is why I find Jane to be such a source of strength and inspiration. She had her low moments, to be sure, but she tried to survive on her own at whatever cost.
"Angry words sofly spoken
Angry Words Softly Spoken
A Comparative Study of English and Arabic Women Writers by Alanoud Alsharekh. Published by Saffron Books
Angry Words Softly Spoken deals with the concept of feminism as a cross-cultural literary device that uncovers the social development of women’s emancipatory progress through the work of both English and Arab female novelists.The main premise of this study relies on many of the theories presented by the 1970’s feminist critical movement, especially that of Elaine Showalter’s tripartite structure.It also suggests a new tripartite structure for the evolution of feminist consciousness in works of fiction involving an inversion of scales in ‘softness’ and ‘anger’ explored through the work of such authors as Charlotte Brontë, Sarah Grand, Virginia Woolf, Layla al-'Uthman, Nawal al Saadawi and Hanan al Shaykh...
....
The works of Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre and Villette, are compared with the literature of the Kuwaiti writer Layla al-'Uthman in Chapter 2: Feminine. Table of Contents here."
More info here.
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Monday, June 26, 2006
A fall and (uncommonplace) frenzy
Today was one of those days that were out of the ordinary.
My friends and I wished to walk around The Lake in the late afternoon and as we were walking toward it, I happened to spot one of my Professors. Overjoyed and unable to contain myself, I waved and screamed her name. She turned to face me, and motioned for me to come and converse with her. We were about 20 yards away, with a hill-like area dividing us, which I had to cross. We talked for a bit and she told me that she told another student of hers about my Bronte exhibit. I think she is quite taken with my Bronte-devotion :) But as soon as I finished talking to her, I started to run down the hill, forgetting that it had rained the day before and for part of the morning, creating large, hidden puddles of mud in the grass. So within a few seconds, SPLASH!!! I found myself in the middle of a large puddle of mud, having fallen on my back. I was drenched all over in mud , including my hair, my face just barely escaping the ordeal. My Professor turned back, caught a glimpse of my poor, soaked self and came to assist me. I tried to muster up some humor and told her that this fall added some spice to my otherwise usually dull existance. She chuckled and said that the fall seemed more like out of a Bronte novel, or better yet, a Jane Austen one. I told her perhaps I ought to hear Willoughby and his horse approaching ;) If it had rained that instant, I might have doubted my conjecture less ! Perhaps then I could have even seen a Gytrash in the distance instead :P
Trying to exert a somewhat cheerful aspect, I got up out of the puddle with much effort just when my friends, oblivious to all that happened, inquired after me. So the Lake trip was put off for now and I walked back to my room. But this was not the end, for just as I was getting cleaned up, the fire alarm rang and I had to run out of the my room, shivering and half-drenched once again.
Ah well, it is a little incident but one that created some excitement, even if it included just myself. The fall wasn't too bad, thankfully, in fact, it was a rather graceful glide ;)
In terms of other odds and ends, I feel like I ought to watch Jane Eyre (1973) again in order to probe further and ascertain whether my sentments on watching it for the first time still hold true. I probably will get to this task tomorrow.
I watched Oliver Twist (directed by Roman Polanski) and I thought it was very intriguing. Primarily because it contained NOTHING about his past or his identity. Ever since I read Oliver Twist when I was about 11, one thing I always remembered was his poor mother dying in the workhouse in the first chapter. I was surprised to find that this version did not mention his mother, or his family AT ALL. Instead, it focused on Fagin,and tried to explore the ethics involved in judging him. This was well done. I don't think I have taken too much of a fancy to Dickens--his characters are too one-dimensional,although the social commentary is significant. Oliver Twist is so angelic you wonder how the child could be so innocent. In a similar vein, Nicholas Nickelby vexes me for the same reason,as does his shallow passion (if it could be called that) for the woman who eventually becomes his wife (her name even escapes me). Anyways, I digress...
I ought to start studying for the GREs. I bought a GRE prep book for that purpose but still haven't found the time to open it and concentrate. Job search is so distracting. I feel like I ought to get paid to get a job (that pays). How ironic!But really, I feel like I don't have much time. I must get something soon..by the end of the summer at least. I hope I can still stay motivated enough to work on job search. If only i could immmerse myself in reading and if only I never had to find a job..ah well, that would be splendid, woudn't it? I am currently reading a book on Emily Bronte's Gondal stories and I find it so interesting! I want to keep reading this stuff all day! I do love her poetry so! I feel that I could relate to Emily on several levels. I could feel her frustrations when she yearned for the World of the Imagination, and I could understand her distate for the tedious kind of "work" in the Real World. It's such a shame she lived almost 250 years ago. I could have had a confidante in her..
My friends and I wished to walk around The Lake in the late afternoon and as we were walking toward it, I happened to spot one of my Professors. Overjoyed and unable to contain myself, I waved and screamed her name. She turned to face me, and motioned for me to come and converse with her. We were about 20 yards away, with a hill-like area dividing us, which I had to cross. We talked for a bit and she told me that she told another student of hers about my Bronte exhibit. I think she is quite taken with my Bronte-devotion :) But as soon as I finished talking to her, I started to run down the hill, forgetting that it had rained the day before and for part of the morning, creating large, hidden puddles of mud in the grass. So within a few seconds, SPLASH!!! I found myself in the middle of a large puddle of mud, having fallen on my back. I was drenched all over in mud , including my hair, my face just barely escaping the ordeal. My Professor turned back, caught a glimpse of my poor, soaked self and came to assist me. I tried to muster up some humor and told her that this fall added some spice to my otherwise usually dull existance. She chuckled and said that the fall seemed more like out of a Bronte novel, or better yet, a Jane Austen one. I told her perhaps I ought to hear Willoughby and his horse approaching ;) If it had rained that instant, I might have doubted my conjecture less ! Perhaps then I could have even seen a Gytrash in the distance instead :P
Trying to exert a somewhat cheerful aspect, I got up out of the puddle with much effort just when my friends, oblivious to all that happened, inquired after me. So the Lake trip was put off for now and I walked back to my room. But this was not the end, for just as I was getting cleaned up, the fire alarm rang and I had to run out of the my room, shivering and half-drenched once again.
Ah well, it is a little incident but one that created some excitement, even if it included just myself. The fall wasn't too bad, thankfully, in fact, it was a rather graceful glide ;)
In terms of other odds and ends, I feel like I ought to watch Jane Eyre (1973) again in order to probe further and ascertain whether my sentments on watching it for the first time still hold true. I probably will get to this task tomorrow.
I watched Oliver Twist (directed by Roman Polanski) and I thought it was very intriguing. Primarily because it contained NOTHING about his past or his identity. Ever since I read Oliver Twist when I was about 11, one thing I always remembered was his poor mother dying in the workhouse in the first chapter. I was surprised to find that this version did not mention his mother, or his family AT ALL. Instead, it focused on Fagin,and tried to explore the ethics involved in judging him. This was well done. I don't think I have taken too much of a fancy to Dickens--his characters are too one-dimensional,although the social commentary is significant. Oliver Twist is so angelic you wonder how the child could be so innocent. In a similar vein, Nicholas Nickelby vexes me for the same reason,as does his shallow passion (if it could be called that) for the woman who eventually becomes his wife (her name even escapes me). Anyways, I digress...
I ought to start studying for the GREs. I bought a GRE prep book for that purpose but still haven't found the time to open it and concentrate. Job search is so distracting. I feel like I ought to get paid to get a job (that pays). How ironic!But really, I feel like I don't have much time. I must get something soon..by the end of the summer at least. I hope I can still stay motivated enough to work on job search. If only i could immmerse myself in reading and if only I never had to find a job..ah well, that would be splendid, woudn't it? I am currently reading a book on Emily Bronte's Gondal stories and I find it so interesting! I want to keep reading this stuff all day! I do love her poetry so! I feel that I could relate to Emily on several levels. I could feel her frustrations when she yearned for the World of the Imagination, and I could understand her distate for the tedious kind of "work" in the Real World. It's such a shame she lived almost 250 years ago. I could have had a confidante in her..
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