Re: female quest narratives

From: Elizabeth Pandolfo (pandolfo@MACBSD.COM)
Date: Tue Jul 29 1997 - 08:46:18 PDT


On 29 July, 1997, Ildney Cavalcanti wrote:

>Writing about the quest versus the romance plot, DuPlessis makes use of both
>terms in different contexts. She uses heroine when she's discussing romance
>plots, and female hero for the quest plots. One of the points she argues is
>that, in nineteenth-century fictions, narratives featuring women
>protagonists could start as a quest plot, but then the female hero had, in
>most cases, to be accommodated into the role of a romance heroine by the end
>of the story. I agree with her point, but still find the term "female hero"
>a bit awkward... Any suggestions?

That's what I do too. I hate the term female hero, but I haven't hit on
another term to describe what I mean. The term seems particularly
inappropriate and even demeaning when considering that female heroism can
be light-years different from male heroism, which we've standardized in our
culture.

Elizabeth

--
Elizabeth L. Pandolfo/Briggs
pandolfo@macbsd.com
http://www.macbsd.com/~pandolfo/index.html

"Whatever happens, believe that the journey is worth taking..." --Pesh, "Seaward"



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