Rebels turned beacons in women’s literature

By Shireen SENADHIRA

In literature throughout the ages, it has been found that writers who are non conformists or those who are different from the norm have faced much difficulty in life and society. The following four women literary figures are good examples of the above. They are:

Gajaman Nona Sri Lankan from 1848 to 1915

Virginia Woolf British from 1882 to 1941

Sylvia Plath American from 1932 to 1962 and

Alice Walker African American from 1944 to

They are not mere literary figures but those of great fame. They influenced and defined the literature of their times. Especially the latter three, did so with their views on death, emotion and feminism. Both Plath and Walker found the stringent laws laid down by their predecessors, the men and even women in their society, irksome.

Sylvia Plath

Alice Walker

Virginia Woolf

Their writings display their difficulty in facing such and their struggle with it and how they try to overcome it. It is interesting to find that all four women at a very young age became writers. Gajaman Nona displayed her ability of repartee in verse. At eight years old, once, when she went to the well for water, someone had hidden her water pot. She chided the prankster in verse asking the scoundrel who couldn’t even count to five or eight to return her pot at once so that she could go home.

Her father on hearing this was happy as he had a penchant for literature himself and encouraged his daughter in the study of it. At eight years of age, Plath’s first poem appeared in the Boston Herald. It is recorded that Woolf at nine years produced a newspaper with her articles and drawings by her sister, Vanessa. This newspaper was read by grown-ups and the producer was in bliss when her mother made a comment, ‘rather clever, I think.’ Whereas, other children played at being grown up with hats, skirts, trousers and shoes, Woolf did so mostly, with words and phrases.

When a freak accident of a shot gun left Walker blinded in one eye during a heated game of cowboys and Indians, it was the turning point in the life of Walker, then a little girl of eight years. Her older brother, who caused the accident, saw to it that the impairment was corrected but Walker never fully recovered her sight of her right eye. From then on, she became reserved and secluded and was more of an observer rather than a participant in everyday life. Then she turned to writing as a solace.

The legendary figure and poetess, Gajaman Nona was a handsome woman who had the ability in writing and reciting situwankavi -impromptu verse in sinhala. These verses fell off her lips like rain drops falling from a glossy banana leaf. When she delivered her replies in verse, they were so apt, vibrant and witty but the same translated into English loses its rhythmic cadences. Her rare talent was enhanced in both, style and vocabulary under the tutelage of the Buddhist scholar monk, Panditha Korathota Hamuduruwo. Her fame spread far and wide among the educated in the southern, western and sabaragamuwa districts of Sri Lanka.

She married thrice and to her misfortune, all three husbands died. She was left with three sons from two marriages and they all had to go and live in her father’s house. Her father who was skilled and courageous in capturing and taming elephants in the southern district for his king, died at work when an elephant attacked him. All this reduced Gajaman Nona to an impoverished state. It was at this time John D’Oyly, the British Agent was officially residing in the south of the island and Gajaman appealed to him for help in twelve fine verses of Sinhala poetry. D’Oyly who had majored in literature for his degree, admired Gajaman’s poetry and her intellect.

Later, he kindly granted her a tract of land which helped the widow and children to live comfortably.

It has been recorded that Gajaman Nona's exceptional prowess was seen in her poem of 32 verses about her father and the Buddhist ceremonies and rituals. They also showed how rich the Sinhala language was in those times. Many learned men corresponded with her in verse after the death of her second husband.

The most talked about was, the handsome Elapatha Mudliyar who was smitten by her. However, when his polished poems turned erotic, Gajaman Nona replied them cleverly in the same vein punning her reprimands. Though there is a dispute about the dates of her birth and death in the records there was no doubt at any time that she was the most outstanding woman of letters in those late Dutch and British times. Life was not smooth at all for her as many aspersions were cast on her, generally, these did not deter her being herself, but she had written thus in poverty and depression:

There are no parents to give comfort to the body and mind Relations do not care when one is poor. For worry and sickness I have no cure. There is none to protect us now.

Woolf suffered from a bi-polar disorder in her life. When not suffering from depression, she worked long hours diligently. She was vivacious, witty and ebullient company and a member of the Bloomsbury Group, started by her brother Thoby and his friends. This group grew to encompass London’s literary circle. She joined the women’s suffrage movement.

She was a prolific writer. Even at present, her prodigious output of diaries, letters, critical essays, short stories and novels continue to be the source of much scholarly study. Themes in her work include gender relations, class hierarchy and the consequences of war. Woolf was among the founders of the Modernist movement which also included T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, James Joyce and Gertrude Stein.

Woolf’s extended essay, 'A Room' , based on lectures she had given at women’s colleges in Cambridge University is regarded as a classic feminist work. In this essay, she examines women and their struggles as artists, their positions in literary history and need for independence.

She also recounts the obstructions faced by women authors in the 19th century and says it would have needed a very stalwart young woman to disregard all those snubs and chidings they received then. She also emphatically stressed this issue when she said ‘Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of the mind.’

Her call was for women to acquire for themselves the intellectual freedom which economic self sufficiency will provide and to create a women’s literature. She encouraged them to write about all the ‘minutely obscure lives’ and about themselves, their feelings and their reaction to the world around them. Woolf is arguably, the major lyrical novelist in the English language. Intense lyricism and stylistic virtuosity fuse to create a world of auditory and visual impressions abundantly in her writings.

Plath shows the impasse of female creativity in contrast to the achievements of feminism in the 20th century.

It is said that though Plath is described as a ‘possessed poet’ we must not forget her talent, her poetic skill and single mindedness as an author. She is a woman who ascended through her writing and working through her conflicts in her various identities, professionalism, authorship, domesticity and maternity. It was Harold Fromm who surmised Plath thus:

‘She entertained virtually every possible self, from virginal pious daughter to roaring bitch, to moon-goddess to adoring mother and …none of these selves can be accorded more authentic priority than any of the others.’

Plath’s poem ‘Ariel’ shows her skill as a poet. It is an enthralling poem with ambiguity in the title that makes it interesting. Is it the name of her horse and thus the symbolic freedom and feminine power and escape? Or, is it in reference to the caged Shakespearian spirit in Tempest? These are opposing views.

However, Shakespeare’s Ariel was finally released from the chains of its master Prospero. Could Plath be referring to her final release from male rule of her husband or life in general? This poem begins with the illusion of release but is immediately jerked back to everyday life and intimacy which turns rapidly to something ugly and unpleasant, in ’nigger eye/berries cast dark/ hooks.’ Despite this, she gains pleasure from the experience in ‘I foam to wheat,’ and then briefly to the illusion of freedom again in ‘a glitter of seas.’

The poetry of Plath is deceptively simple and has simple language. Primitive forms are seen in it but they fragment into unusual and painful combinations by use of surprising brutal imagery, occasionally. It has gut honesty that demands respect. She is perhaps the best of the late 20th century poets. Plath’s ‘Collected Poems’ (1981) assembled and edited by Ted Hughes won a posthumous Pulitzer prize.

Walker, the eighth child of sharecropper African American family had many economic hardships. Despite such, she graduated with flying colours. During her student days, Walker became frustrated with the lack of literature on the history, culture and experience of the black community and she challenged educational institutions to create a representative curriculum. In the 1960s she joined the civil rights movement. This experience became the basis of her excellent novel Meridian. The Colour Purple, however, is her best known book and its richly drawn female characters have been well praised. Walker was the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1983 for this book. The Colour Purple was also turned into a successful film which garnered 11 Academy Award nominations. Walker remains very active politically, championing women’s issues and women’s work.

Walker explores the conditions which society placed on women and mostly black people, in her works. She is more positive than Plath in her writing, in that Walker explores the possibility of change. This is depicted in her book Meridian, where the heroine breaks away from her set roles and finds the welcome change. Plath however, gets torn down by the demands of her society as is shown in her confessional novel, Bell Jar, which is more, a painful statement of what happens to a woman’s aspirations in a society that refuses to take them seriously. Incidentally the novel Bell Jar is a classic in American literature.

The deaths in the life of Gajaman Nona, Woolf and Plath affected them greatly. Her three husbands and father died and left Gajaman Nona at poverty level. The death of parents and siblings left Woolf bereft. In the case of Plath, it was her father’s death. The deaths and the turmoil of life perhaps affected Woolf and Plath and brought about their illnesses which continued and led them to suicide.

In lighter vein, Gajaman and Woolf were masters at disguise. The former disguised herself, as a young man to enter a Buddhist temple to secure her learning when young women were not encouraged to be educated and associations for women with monks were forbidden . Woolf impersonated an Abyssinian in the retinue of the Emperor of Abyssinia and went on an official tour of a naval inspection. This was a prank conceived by her brother, Adrian and his rich friend Cole. The impersonations were perfect and they fooled the captain of the battleship, the H M S Dreadnought. One in the group spoke Swahili too. But they were greatly rebuked by the newspapers that found out about the practical joke and also by the family. These incidents show that Woolf, like Gajaman, was very headstrong and rebellious in character.

Each of these women had a daring, vibrant, indignant consciousness which was translated instantly into words and images that bind close in their writings. In addition, their writings included experienced suffering and sardonic control.

As such, their contributions to literature are invaluable and they stand like beacons in women’s literature.

The following poem of Walker emphasizes the woman and the role of woman. She begins her poem ‘A Woman is Not a Potted Plant, with:

A woman is not a potted plant
Her roots bound
To the confines
Of her house
and ends aptly with the following lines:
A woman is
wilderness
Unbounded
Holding the future
Between each breath
Walking the earth
Only because she is free
And not creeper vine

Or tree.
Nor even honeysuckle Or bee.