“I've got out at last. . . And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!"

If you ever question the power of the written word, you need look no longer than to the many female authors that have bravely used their abilities as fictional writers to liberate women. 




















It sometimes baffles me to think about how far we have come since the 19th century, and few reminds me more hauntingly than Kate Chopin in “The Story of an Hour" and Charlotte Perkins Gilman in “The Yellow Wallpaper", which has been coined a feminist classic. Through female protagonists controlled by men, these stories illustrate the 19nth century women’s lack of power, the forced female roles in this time and how this affected women’s sanity. At a time were females finally started to see some opportunities outside the home, they were not allowed to pursue them. The stories effectively places opportunity against the idea of the womanly obligation, to show how the women were imprisoned by their gender in a patriarchal society.

I will not summarize the plots of these stories for the sole reason that I wish you to discover how they unfold first hand. I will warn you, that you might experience some skin prickling. 

Classics

Why don't you write books people can read?     
                                -- Nora Joyce, to her husband James

Nora may be right that many of her husband's works are, for lack of a better phrase, "a difficult read". Most people, including myself, find his writing intimidating; yet, it seems unimaginable to go through life without the company of- , or at least a swift encounter with-, the great James Joyce. Personally I have a soft spot for the short story collection Dubliners published in 1914. Especially, the story Araby, just because it deals with the most common literary themes there are, such as love and coming of age, yet it is done as only Mr. Joyce could have done it. Brilliantly. And with an amazing ability to make the characters feelings come alive without explaining, you can literally feel the emotions coming off the pages.


I'm not going to lie, even Dubliners is not the Twilight Sagas, they do demand some attentive reading, but it's an amazing way to begin a relationship with Joyce.