Special K

Chic-Lit

"While neither the Gilman nor Gaspell story necessarily exludes the male as the reader- indeed both are directed specifically at educating him to become the better reader- they do, nonetheless, insist that, however inadvertently, he is a different kind of reader and that, where women are concerned, he is often an inadequate reader" (Kolodny 201).

We all know that guys and girls are different in numerous ways but, now, we even read differently and take different meanings from literature? I guess there is a reason we have "chiclit".

While the majority of Kolodny's "A Map for Rereading: Or, Gender and the Interpretation of Literary Texts" recounts Bloom's texts practically word for word, her overall arguement is that women's literature at the time of "The Yellow Wallpaper" was not only written by women, for women, but also to show men they have no idea what girls are talking about most of the time (which is true). Yet another divide among the sexes.

"The Yellow Wallpaper", according to Kolodny, is not only a text about the descent into madness, but a woman's response to the misunderstanding of our thoughts and lives during the era in which it was written. John does not understand his wife, eventually causing an even greater slip into insantiy, just as men could not understand women's literature. Really? Is a woman's writing so different from a man's? Are our themes so strange that men simply cannot grasp the meaning? I'm pretty sure that some ideas are universal, regardless of gender.

However, this is looking at the text during the time of the text, when a woman's writing truly was radically different. "...women were expected to write specifically for their own sex and within the tradition of woman's culture rather than within the Great Tradition. They never presented themselves in the footsteps of Milton or Spencer" (Baym qtd. in Kolodny 196). Men were confused to see a woman writing, especially about troubling subjects such as sexuality, insanity, and the treatment by men. Their loving wives really didn't think this way, right? It was a time of shock for male readers, who didn't really know how to "take" this emerging genre of women writers. The male is not unable to understand the writing of women, he just must adjust his thinking in order to better understand the meaning and realize women have thoughts too, and they don't all involve the kitchen.

Kolodny, '"A Map for Rereading: Or, Gender and the Interpretation of Literary Texts'' -- Jerz EL312 (Literary Criticism)