feminine gospels mocks

#metoo movement

• fourth wave feminism (2010s - now)

• against sexual abuse / harassment / rape culture

• encouraging survivors to share experiences

  • raising awareness

  • supporting survivors

• holding perpetrators accountable

form of ‘beautiful’

mock epic

• satirical parody of classical poems recounting heroic exploits

Duffy’s intent - critical of society / history’s treatment of women / narrative given to them

4 beauties used in ‘beautiful’

Plutarch’s ‘Parallel Lines’

• 2 classical beauties

• 2 modern beauties

• by pairing them, show similarities

why are the women unnamed in ‘Beautiful’?

• universal experience

• history only concerned with their appearance, not real identity

how has views of female beauty changed?

• traditional literature = immortalised, idolised, idealised

  • Petrarch’s idolation of unattainable beauty

  • courtly love traditions

• modern day = no respect, ex-Platonic

  • male gaze prizes female beauty to the point of destruction

how is Antony emasculated in ‘Beautiful’?

• ignores duty as soldier, abandons army, leaves with Cleopatra

  • Cleopatra = seductress

  • fear of women seducing men

• warships ordered to follow Cleopatra

scholar quote on Diana in ‘Beautiful’

PROF JOHN MCRAE - Diana “sacrificed to insatiable public appetite”

scholar quote on shopping emporium in ‘the woman who shopped’

JOHN MCRAE - shopping emporium represents corruption of the first apple woman desired

scholar quote on the transmogrification of the woman who shopped

COULTHARD

• body = “commodification of the feminine”

• “capitalist edifice”

  • women exploited by advertising and targeted by advertising

  • bodies no longer used intimately

context for ‘loud’

US / Allied invasion of Afghanistan after 9/11

irony in ‘Loud’

the news = gospels are ‘good news’, but this is anything but good

context for “boos for the bent MP”

political scandal

• 2001 Officegate

• Henry McLeish

Renaissance ideas in ‘Loud’

terrible deeds of mankind (microcosm) → chaos in natural world (macrocosm)

meter of “that scream was a huge bird….” in ‘Loud’

dactyllic hexameter = Homeric

interpretations of truncated cliffhanger (gramatically, metrically incomplete) in ‘Sub’

• lets reader contemplate

• women’s voices ignored / kept out of history

• society uninterested in women’s feelings

  • hear about her experiences, but don’t hear true feelings

important structure points in virgin’s memo

• alphabetical

  • deeply considered

  • speaking to Jesus as child?

• “text illegible”

  • how easily female voices have been erased

• repetition

  • tentative tone

  • woman made to question valye of opinion

what is the form of the virgin’s memo?

pastiche of Apocrypha

• comic, mocking copy

what is the virgin’s memo a pastiche of?

Apocrypha

• texts not regarded as part of Biblical canon

what is virgin’s memo an example of?

ecriture feminine - HELEN CIXOUS

• experimental

• writing that deviates from masculine styles

Jesus treating Virgin Mary poorly

Wedding at Cana

anon title

• anonymous

  • women being overlooked

  • represent anonymous woman writers

    • writing under male pseudonyms

title of feminine gospels

• feminine

  • stories of women, by women, about women?

  • or feminised version of ancient patriarchal form?

• gospels

  • ‘good stories’

  • told by Matthew, Mark, Luke, John

  • didactic stories, fantastic metamorphoses

part 1 of triptych

• different aspects of femininity under patriarchy

  • silencing of women’s voices / contributions

  • protest, rage

• public statements with bold claims

• distortion of scale