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The Progression of Feminism in American Culture: An Anthology of Feminist Literature
Preface: Fighting for Feminism
This anthology contains chronologically ordered texts from five authors notable for their
feminist portrayal of women throughout American history, challenging the traditional
expectations of women accepted up until the end of the 19th-century. Traces of feminism in
American literature rapidly progressed from the subtle “Prologue” written by Anne Bradstreet to
“They Shut me up in Prose” by Emily Dickinson; an example of blatant feminism via literature.
These texts, among many others across various genres, may have contributed to the New
Woman, during the fin de siècle era, a term coined from Sarah Grand’s “The New Aspect of the
Woman Question” in 1894. The New Woman, a far more “masculine” representation of
19th-century women, triggered a progressive movement that motivated women’s independence
from their male counterpart.
This anthology contains chronologically ordered texts from five authors notable for their
feminist portrayal of women throughout American history, challenging the traditional
expectations of women accepted up until the end of the 19th-century. Traces of feminism in
American literature rapidly progressed from the subtle “Prologue” written by Anne Bradstreet to
“They Shut me up in Prose” by Emily Dickinson; an example of blatant feminism via literature.
These texts, among many others across various genres, may have contributed to the New
Woman, during the fin de siècle era, a term coined from Sarah Grand’s “The New Aspect of the
Woman Question” in 1894. The New Woman, a far more “masculine” representation of
19th-century women, triggered a progressive movement that motivated women’s independence
from their male counterpart.
With the entrance of sexism and bigotry into politics, today’s women are no longer
respected as equals. Students, serving as the next generation in this country, must understand that
ordinary people are being condoned for their advances upon women, serving as sexual objects
instead of human beings, and reverting back to times prior to the New Woman. Despite protests
such as the Women’s March of 2017 and the ongoing Me Too Movement, women’s voices are
often disregarded. This anthology serves as a reminder of a woman’s unrecognized potential,
revitalizing confidence, outspokenness, and hope in a cause that seems utterly hopeless while
America’s figurehead encourages a violation of basic human rights. Women must revisit the
earliest forms of resistance, using these literary works, “The Prologue” by Anne Bradstreet, The
Coquette by Hannah Webster Foster, “The Great Lawsuit” by Margaret Fuller, “The Fall of the
House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe, and “They Shut me up in Prose” by Emily Dickinson, as
guidance for contemporary protest. According to these works, women are free to express
themselves intellectually, resisting the sexualized object that they are reduced to. Foster’s The
Coquette and Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” are the only exceptions, using sexuality as
a form of freedom.
Introduction
Argument: The New Woman
The Progression of Feminism in American Culture features historical background on
what Sarah Grand Coined in her 1894 essay “The New Aspect of the Woman Question.” The
New Woman, a far more “masculine” representation of 19th-century women, debates women’s
social status in British-American society and culture. Grand first addresses the Bawling Brothers,
men who “howl down every attempt on our part of our sex to make the world a pleasanter place
to live in,” and concludes that “men generally are Bawling Brothers . . . which makes all men out
to be fiends” (Grant 88-89). The first is “he who is satisfied with the coy-kind of woman as being
most convenient” while the second is “under the influence of the scum of our sex, who knows
nothing better than women, of that class in and out of society, preys upon them or runs himself or
them, takes his whole tone from them, and judges us all by them” (89). Each lack respect for
women, taking advantage of their timidity and submission. Grand explains that these perceptions
are not the fault of men, but the result of their limited comprehension and cognitive abilities,
never thinking “of looking up to where she had been sitting apart in silent contemplation all these
years, thinking and thinking, until at last she solved the problem and proclaimed for herself what
was wrong with Home-is-the-Woman’s Sphere, and prescribed the remedy” (89). The “child
man,” Grand explains, requires patience and pity. He must be taught to recognize his weakness:
his belief that man is perfect. The New Woman addresses these men with “an air suggestive of
the fact that she could tell them a thing or two if she took the trouble,” establishing women, far
superior in morale and intellect than those restrained by motherhood (Character Note 80).
The literature of the fin de siécle portrays the New Woman in male clothing, carrying her
elbows from her side to create “[the] aggressive air of independence which finds its birth in the
length of her stride” (Character Note 80). Her hands are steady and her brow serious, “for the
brain behind is crammed as full of high projects as is the satchel she carries of pamphlets on the
missions, rights, grievances and demands of her sex” (Eastwood). Authoritative and ambitious,
the New Woman speaks with “sudden gleams of electric fire, alternating with murky darkness . .
. content with nothing less than the reformation of the entire male sex” (91-92). Grands most
notable novels including Ideala (1888), The Heavenly Twins (1893), and The Beth Book (1897),
reinforce the attributes of the New Woman. Her old-fashioned criticisms accepted marriage as a
woman’s purpose, but denied the notion that women lacked enough intelligence to select their
own marital partners.
M. Eastwood’s 1894 essay on “The New Woman in Fiction and in Fact” goes as far as to
claim the New Woman a syren, “luring the easy victim to his destruction. She only has to strike a
vibrating ‘key-note’ on her seductive lyre and behold he lies grovelling at her feet! And he likes
it, for never does she let him feel bored a single minute. Whether in the capacity of lover or
husband, she continues to hold him spell-bound” (90-91). Holding dominion over the male sex,
Eastwood’s seductress figure resists the expectations of marriage, as sexual intimacy is not
restricted to the husband, being over to lovers as well. Ella Hepworth Dixon’s 1899 essay titled
“Why Women are Ceasing to Marry” attributes such resistance, to an increase in women’s
education, replacing the meek wife with an intelligent, outspoken woman.
Alluding to the feminist figure that would one day become the New Woman, the literary
works included in this feminist anthology challenge the traditional expectations of women
accepted up until the end of the 19th-century, eventually triggering a progressive movement that
would one day permit women’s independence from their male counterpart.
Methodology:
This anthology contains chronologically ordered texts, all published in different years and
by separate authors, and thereby demonstrative of the progression of feminism in literature up
until the entrance of the New Woman. From the subtlety of Anne Bradstreet's “Prologue” in
1650, the works have become blunter in their assessment of feminist ideals, promoting
non-traditionalism. The female writers, including Bradstreet, Webster, Fuller, and Dickinson,
offer a personal, and almost certainly, biased perspective, to the debate on feminism. To combat
bias, Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” is introduced, representing the male
perspective on the non-traditional woman.
Connections:
Written in 1650, Anne Bradstreet’s poem titled “The Prologue” portrays the life of a
woman in Puritan society, unable to express her thoughts and opinions. As she holds her pen to
write, Bradstreet is criticized by men who assert that the pen is superior to women, in whose
“hand a needle better fits” (Bradstreet 220). This traditional understanding of women limited
Bradstreet to the domestic sphere, supposedly lacking enough artistic intelligence to create
literature. Men rationalized that a woman’s writing, if successful, was either “stol’n, or else it
was by chance,” immediately discrediting their literary capabilities (220). Bradstreet confronts
these ideals, asking men to “grant [women] some small acknowledgment,” but eventually
submits to male oppression (220). She admits “men can do best, and women know it well” (220).
Bradstreet’s “The Prologue,” a subtle expression of feminism, promotes artistic potential,
intellect, and outspokenness of women, similar to the New Woman figure who became educated
enough to act of her own volition.
Hannah Webster Foster’s 1797 The Coquette takes the form of an epistolary novel.
Written through letters, the novel presents an intimate view of characters’ feelings, particularly
Eliza. Eliza is described as a coquette, a woman who flirts and vies for men’s attention. This
promiscuous figure is based upon the death of Elizabeth Witman, a woman who stole away from
her home in Hartford, partaking in an affair with a married man, and dying alone with her
stillborn child in Salem. Shortly after the death of her intended husband, Mr. Haly, Eliza
similarly embraces a licentious lifestyle, using her sexuality as a source of freedom and resisting
expectations of republican motherhood. Republican motherhood describes women as isolated to
the domestic sphere and responsible for inspiring civic virtue in both her husband and children.
Eliza reflects on marriage and motherhood as “the tomb of friendship,” stating “It appears to me
a very selfish state. Why do people, in general, as soon as they are married, centre all their cares,
their concerns, and pleasures in their own families? Former acquaintances are neglected or
forgotten. The tenderest ties between friends are weakened, or dissolved; and benevolence itself
moves in a very limited sphere” (Foster 854-855). Eliza at first assumes “masculine habit and
attitudes,” rejecting Mr. Boyer, a respectable man assertive of traditional gender roles, who
pursues her (907). She wishes to maintain her freedom, recently obtained by Mr. Haly’s death.
She flirtatiously entices Major Sanford, eventually becoming sexually intimate with him, further
resisting the norm that restricts sex to marital partners. Like Eastwood’s portrayal of the New
Woman, Eliza can be seen as a seductress, a coquette, using her sexuality to posit her freedom
and independence from her male counterpart.
Poe’s 1839 short story “The Fall of the House of Usher” features a decrepit
house, containing the last two members of the ancient Usher family. Once regarded highly, the
house of Usher falls via corruption, as “the stem of the Usher race . . . had put forth, at no period,
any enduring branch; in other words, that the entire family lay in the direct line of descent, and
had always, with very trifling and very temporary variation, so lain” (630). What can be
proposed as incestuous behavior physically and mentally corrupts the family, being passed down
from father to son, and amplifying the biological consequences with every generation.
Nonetheless, Roderick and lady Madeline are expected by tradition to carry on the family
lineage. Women, at the beginning of Poe’s short story, are minimalized as being no more than
vessels for the next generation. Being gravely ill, though, the lady Madeline cannot sustain a
child and is henceforth perceived by Roderick as the weak link in the family chain, causing the
fall of the house of Usher. Lady Madeline is murdered by her brother and buried, dying as the
victim of a tyrannical male. Burying his sister suggests burying women beneath the pressures of
society, expecting them to fulfill their role as a child bearer. Upon conclusion of the text, the
narrator describes the “loft and enshrouded figure of the lady Madeline of Usher” appearing with
“blood upon her white robes, and the evidence of some bitter struggle upon every portion of her
emaciated frame” (640). While the blood on her white garments could simply be the result of her
gruesome murder, the blood could also represent being defiled by her brother, losing her virginal
innocence and purity. Nonetheless, the lady Madeline returns for vengeance upon the house of
Usher, assuming the forward figure of the New Woman and falling “heavily inward upon the
person of her brother, and in her violent and now final death-agonies, bore him to the floor a
corpse, and a victim to the terrors he had anticipated” (640). Madeline becomes antagonistic,
expressing her disdain for her mistreatment as a women, and forcing herself onto her brother as
he would have gladly done to her during sexual intercourse. She pays Roderick back for his
murderous actions, dragging him down with her into death, and to the family’s demise. From
beginning to the end of Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher,” the woman progresses from a
subservient, sexual object, to the image of feminist resistance, the New Woman, that became
particularly prominent during the 19th-century.
Margaret Fuller’s 1843 article “The Great Lawsuit” argues for equal status and
opportunity among both men and women. Fuller links women’s current status in 19th-century
America to that of indigenous people, stating “Centuries have passed since, but civilized Europe
is still in a transition state about marriage, not only in practice, but in thought,” no better than the
savagery of “the Indian chief, who sells his daughter for a horse, and beats her if she runs away
from her new home” (Fuller 744). Fuller asserts that this is a result of men’s inability to surpass
pride and selfishness, unwilling to give women the opportunities of education and intellect that
men often enjoy. Due to this, women are treated as children, incapable of making educated
decisions and partaking in adult matters. Because women are mistreated, marriage can never be
an equal partnership. Nevertheless, Fuller predicts the appearance of a “woman who shall
vindicate their birthright for all women; who shall teach them what to claim, and how to use
what they obtain,” alluding to the coming of the New Woman figure (759).
The 1935 poem “They Shut me up in Prose” by Emily Dickinson figuratively describes
being locked in a closet, being stifled in the small space. This imagery is representative of
Dickinson’s inability to express herself via poetry, being confined to prose by men. Literature in
prose was deemed as the easiest of the two literary forms, poetry far surpassing a woman’s
abilities. As a result, they “put [her] in the Closet – / Because they liked [her] ‘still’ –”
(Dickinson). Dickinson attributes her captivity to that of a bird, “lodged . . . / For Treason – in
the Pound –” (Dickinson). Like a bird, though, her will cannot be suppressed, as she “easy as a
Star / Look down upon Captivity – / And laugh –” (Dickinson). To escape the restraints of prose,
all she must do is write poetry, like the bird that eventually escapes the pound. Dickinson, in
turn, promotes assertion and outspokenness among women, as is the most common portrayal of
the New Woman.
The Progression of Feminism in American Culture contains American feminist literature,
defying 19th-century expectations of women and motivating women’s resistance at the turn of
the century. In response to modern-day movements including The 2017 Women’s March and the
MeToo Movement, this anthology is compiled to inspire the attitudes and beliefs of the New
Woman in student feminists, revitalizing confidence, outspokenness, and hope against the ever
increasing threat of sexism and bigotry.
Works Cited:
Caird, Mona. “from Mona Caird, ‘Marriage’ (1888).” The Fin De Siécle: A Reader in Cultural
History C.1880-1900, Edited by Sally Ledger and Roger Luckhurst, Oxford University
Press Inc., 2000, pp. 77-80.
“‘Character Note: The New Woman’ (1894).” The Fin De Siécle: A Reader in Cultural
History C.1880-1900, Edited by Sally Ledger and Roger Luckhurst, Oxford University
Press Inc., 2000, pp. 80-83.
Dickinson, Emily. “They shut me up in prose-(445).” Poetry Foundation,
poetryfoundation.org/poems/52196/they-shut-me-up-in-prose-445.
Dixon, Ella H. “Ella Hepworth Dixon, ‘Why Women are Ceasing to Marry’ (1899).” The Fin De
Siécle: A Reader in Cultural History C.1880-1900, Edited by Sally Ledger and Roger
Luckhurst, Oxford University Press Inc., 2000, pp. 83-88.
Eastwood, M. “from M. Eastwood, ‘The New Woman in Fiction and in Fact’ (1894).” The Fin
De Siécle: A Reader in Cultural History C.1880-1900, Edited by Sally Ledger and Roger
Luckhurst, Oxford University Press Inc., 2000, pp. 88-90.
Grand, Sarah. “from Sarah Grand, ‘The New Aspect of the Woman Question’ (1894).” The Fin
De Siécle: A Reader in Cultural History C.1880-1900, Edited by Sally Ledger and Roger
Luckhurst, Oxford University Press Inc., 2000, pp. 88-90.
Ledger, Sally. “The New Woman and feminist fictions.” The Cambridge Companion to The Fin
De Siécle , Edited by Gail Marshall, Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp. 153-168.
Marshall, Gail. “Introduction.” The Cambridge Companion to The Fin De Siécle , Edited by Gail
Marshall, Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp. 1-12.
Ruddick, Nicholas. “The fantastic fiction of the fin de siécle” Cambridge Companion to The Fin
De Siécle , Edited by Gail Marshall, Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp. 189-206.