How to Suppress Women's Writing

Familiar feminist responses to traditional literary criticism - relied out in sarcastic, shrill, admittedly scattershot form by gifted sf writer Russ. (To give you an idea of the viewpoint here, Russ will probably regard "gifted sf writer" as an attempt to suppress her writing through genre-pigeonholing.) The first of a dozen brief essays recalls past prohibitions against women's writing, now still operative in the form of discouragement ("the message that women cannot or should not he artists"). Then come examples of criticism that "denies" a woman's real authorship, that "pollutes" that authorship with "the idea that women make themselves ridiculous by creating art." (Unconvincingly, Russ equates the 19th-century pejorative of "impropriety" with today's "confessional.") And more subtle, insidious forms of degradation are seen in: "the double standard of content" (Wuthering Heights must be a love story, not a study of evil, because it's by a woman); "false categorizing" (calling Kate Chopin or Willa Cather "reglonalists"); the myth of the isolated achievement, which ignores C. Bronte's Villette; and the restrictions on the quantity of woman-writer visibility - on reading lists, in anthologies. ("There is much, much more good literature by women in existence than anyone knows.") How do women writers respond to this situation? By appeals to truth, by redefinitions and evasions, by direct confrontation, by feminist solidarity - and, regrettably, says Russ, by turning away from the problem. But Russ urges them to reject the premises of male/white/middle-class-centered literature (today "there can be. . . no single center of value and hence no absolute standards"), exploring new forms and embracing new criteria. Slapdash, full of contradictions and exaggerations, sorely lacking in context - but lively, argumentative voicings that offer encouragement (and a neat way to discount all negative criticism) to struggling women writers. (Kirkus Reviews)