Women in Literature

The main purpose of the topic of Women’s Literature is to allow students to explore a category of writing that has often been criticised and judged but also commended and celebrated due to the powerful battle for identity that it represents within society dating back as far as the Ancient Greeks.

Women’s literature is often defined as a category of writing done by women however, this definition is so limited and restrictive, symbolic of how women in society and female writers have felt for centuries. It is instead an area of study of powerful figures, marginalised by history, who told their lives through literature while occupying a unique socio-political space within culture for centuries.

This topic is rooted within societal movement and developments which involves all civilisation however primarily focuses on women in literature; female writers, female narrators, iconic female protagonists that reflect a Feminist movement in society. Beginning with the introduction of the greats such as Sappho and Aphra Benn, to the Victorian greatest literary sisters, the Brontë’s and Charlotte Mew’s modernism poetry to the transformation into modern day literature such as the dystopian, The Handmaid’s Tale and The Purple Hibiscus as they battle for freedom and hope for the future. Through this topic, students should gain an understanding of the critical literary movements and how different writers exploited fears, hopes and a battle for identity as women struggled in society focusing on The Yellow Wallpaper as the primary novel but using a range of other texts to present the development of feminist literature through the centuries.