Sunday, April 14, 2013
Gilbert and Gubar
Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar argue that women writers have "an anxiety of authorship." They claim that this anxiety is different than the anxieties male writers have, because while men are anxious in living up to their precursors, women really don't have any percursors to refer to. Woman has to instead worry that her writing will be deemed as unworthy to be read because man will not be able to understand the way in which the woman has written. As a writer, I can say that I am certainly anxious in how my work compares to the works of others, but I have never felt anxiety that my work would be viewed as less because of its distict feminine viewpoint and way of thinking. Was Gilbert and Gubar's statement more applicable in 1979 than it is today? Have any of you experienced what Gilber and Gubar define as the male "anxiety of influence" or female "anxiety of authorship?"
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Mary,
ReplyDeleteI think you may be onto something. I don't know if things are different in 1979 than now, but I do know, that on campus, that women basically have less confidence than men in classes. That may be related to the anxiety of authorship/authority.