One of the best ways to become a better writer is to read more. While the deluge of social media certainly spoonfeeds (and sometimes force feeds) us plenty of options for reading, sometimes we need to seek things out, rather than just reading what's readily available.
I was intrigued by this obituary in the June 22 New York Times, about Nina Baym, a professor who dedicated her career to the discovery of unknown women writers. In college, I chose a major in women's studies because I was interested in looking at history, literature, culture, etc. through a lens that was different from what I'd always studied previously. (And because I was flunking statistics, which pretty much screwed my psych major. #brutalhonesty).
From the obituary, by writer Neil Genzingler, a quote from Professor Baym:
“Today we hear of this literature, if at all, chiefly through detractors who deplore the feminizing — and hence degradation — of the noble art of letters. A segment of literary history is thus lost to us, a segment that may be of special interest today as we seek to recover and understand the experiences of women.
I have not unearthed a forgotten Jane Austen or George Eliot, or hit upon even one novel that I would propose to set alongside ‘The Scarlet Letter.’ Yet I cannot avoid the belief that ‘purely’ literary criteria, as they have been employed to identify the best American works, have inevitably had a bias in favor of things male — in favor, say, of whaling ships rather than the sewing circle as a symbol of the human community; in favor of satires on domineering mothers, shrewish wives, or betraying mistresses rather than tyrannical fathers, abusive husbands, or philandering suitors.”
Please read Professor Baym's obituary in full here: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/22/obituaries/nina-baym-who-brought-novels-by-women-to-light-dies-at-82.html
Discussion questions:
1) Tell us about a little-known female writer (or writer of color, LGBT writer, etc) you admire and why. How did you come to know of this person's work?
2) What do you think the value is in uncovering the work of writers who are not considered to be part of the literary canon, or otherwise well-known?
3) Why was Professor Baym's quest to discover the work of unknown female authors important? Or, conversely, why was it unimportant?