Female authors

Instructions –

Discuss the following female authors –Write each response below each question

1. Anne Bradstreet’s Puritan lifestyle is clearly evident in her poetry yet, at the same time, her anger at the situation women were placed in fueled much of her writing. Find an example in her work where she lashes out against the status quo. How do you reconcile the two contradictory sides of Bradstreet? (100 words)
2. Look at Mary Rowlandson’s descriptions of Indians, both men and women. What does her narrative tell us about how she views Indians in general? Does her opinion change? (100 words)
3. Abigail Adams’ letter contribute to a “portrait of an independent yet dedicated wife.” How is Adams able to be both? How is her independence and dedication demonstrated in her writing? (100 words)
4. Critic Julie Epstein argues that Frances Burney’s experience with her mastectomy was not unusual for her time period. Epstein proposes that Burney is both patient and surgeon (using a pen instead of a scapel). What do you think? (100 words)
5. What themes are common in Phillis Wheatley’s poetry? Why do you think she writes neoclassical poetry? Does this format speak true to her experiences? (100 words)
6. How does Wollstonecraft support her argument that women’s current social subordination does not prove that they are inferior to men? (100 words)
7. The Seventeenth and Eighteen Centuries were a time of considerable changes, especially for women. In A Room of One’s Own Woolf talks about the change in this time period suggesting that the change is of “greater importance than the Crusades or the War of the Roses.” What changed for women? How did these changes influence literature? (500 words)
8. What evidence does Mary Wollstonecraft use in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman to defend her position? What is her position? Do you agree or disagree with her position? Why? (500 words)

Sample Solution