3 ms·
No female essayists or essayists of color? Virginia Woolf, as an example, was a superb essayist.
by mykowebhn 8y ago
No female essayists or essayists of color?
Virginia Woolf, as an example, was a superb essayist.
- joshklein 8y agoOn this topic, I fanatically endorse “Great Books” by David Denby. He took the famous western civ core curriculum at Columbia as an undergrad in the 1960s, then again after 40-ish years. In addition to many other interesting subjects, the book asks the question, “are all these dead white men really that important to study the work of?” Spoiler: he says yes, but the pantheon of great works must be expanded to include those of equal merit previously ignored. Virginia Woolf is one of those he puts on that pedestal with Homer, Virgil, and all the rest.
- mykowebhn 8y agoThanks for the endorsement. Coincidentally, there's another HN post right now about another female, and black, essayist I adore: bell hooks. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19280864 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19280864
- casefields 8y agoThis is one persons opinion, not some affirmative action quota that needs to be met to be accepted. Write your own list and submit it.
- mykowebhn 8y agoI hear you, but the implication that you make is that these writers would not merit making it to these lists were it not for a quota. My take is a lot of these female, non-white writers have not made it due to the echo-chamber that is the Western Canon. This list effectively rehashes this canon. Here's an example from my life. Many years ago, I was a music student. Part of being a music student means taking theory and history. We learned about all of the Western Classical composers, and I remember learning, very briefly, about Clara Schumann. She was taught as a footnote, as the object of desire of Robert Schumann, Brahms, and others. I never knew, until recently, what a gifted and talented composer she was. Her compositions, imo, stand at the same level as her male contemporaries.
- thicknavyrain 8y agoPerhaps rather fittingly, Virginia Woolf's essay "A room of one's own" is an absolutely brilliant read on _why_ precisely women are and were so often neglected and left out of the cultural conversation and literary landscape. One of the cruxes being that opinions matter and the reinforcements culture (such as the compilations of widely shared lists like these) provides sustains their exclusion. I'd give it a look, it's not preachy and it's thoroughly entertaining. http://seas3.elte.hu/coursematerial/PikliNatalia/Virginia_Woolf_-_A_Room_of_Ones_Own.pdf http://seas3.elte.hu/coursematerial/PikliNatalia/Virginia_Wo...
- yesenadam 8y agoThanks. Well, it's not really my opinion - the more modest and accurate subtitle to that first list is "Some of my favourite essays", and I am an - in fact the only authority there is - on what should be on that list!
- yesenadam 8y agoCould you mention some particular essays (preferably by a variety of female and/or non-white authors) that you think I might love so much they'd find a place on my list? Thanks very much.
- mykowebhn 8y agoHere you go: - The Wreck of Time - Annie Dillard - Death of a Moth - Virginia Woolf - A Room of One's Own - Virginia Woolf - The Study of the Negro Problems - W.E.B. DuBois - On Going Home - Joan Didion - In History - Jamaica Kincaid - Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema - Laura Mulvey - How It Feels to be Colored Me - Zora Neale Hurston - Memory and Imagination - Patricia Hampl - Anger and Tenderness - Adrienne Rich - In Plato's Cave - Susan Sontag - What I Talk About When I Talk About Running - Haruki Murakami - The Laugh of the Medusa - Hélène Cixous I'm sure I'm missing many others...