In “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourse,” Chandra Talpade Mohanty suggests a fundamental flaw in most western feminist analysis: the presupposition that women, “across classes and cultures, are somehow socially constituted as a homogenous group identifiable prior to the process of analysis.” It is a flaw in thinking that results in “the assumption of women as an always-already constituted group, one which has been labelled ‘powerless,’ ‘exploited,’ ‘sexually harassed,’etc., by feminist scientific, economic, legal and sociological discourse.” For Mohanty, such erroneous thinking results in feminist discourse “quite similar to sexist discourse labelling women as weak, emotional, having math anxiety, etc.” In such feminist discourse, “the focus is not on uncovering the material and ideological specificities that constitute a group of women as ‘powerless’ in a particular context. It is rather on finding a variety of cases of ‘powerless’ groups of women to prove the general point that women as a group are powerless” (200).
Furthermore, Mohanty suggests that there exists a “claim to authenticity,” a claim, in her view, too often ignored by Western feminists–the idea that “only a black can speak for a black; only a postcolonial subcontinental feminist can adequately represent the lived experience of that culture” (201).
Mohanty’s arguments are well worth considering: the stereotyped categories of oppression that Mohanty notes as being typical of western feminist analysis (women as victim of male violence, women as universal dependents, married women as victims of the colonial process, etc.) can indeed be nearly as reductive, co…
… middle of paper …
… Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourse.” Feminist Review. 30 (Autumn 1988): 65-88.
Nnaemeka, Obioma. “Gender Relations and Critical Meditation: From Things Fall Apart to Anthills of the Savannah.” Challenging Hierarchies: Issues and Themes In Colonial and Post colonial African Literature. Society and Politics in Africa. Vol 5. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 1998. 137-160.
Opara, Chioma. “From Stereotype to Individuality: Womanhood in Chinua Achebe’s Novels.” Challenging Hierarchies: Issues and Themes In Colonial and Post colonial African Literature. Society and Politics in Africa. Vol 5. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 1998. 113-123.
Podis, Leonard A. and Yakubu Saaka, eds. Challenging Hierarchies: Issues and Themes In Colonial and Post colonial African Literature. Society and Politics in Africa. Vol 5. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 1998.
Comparing Owen’s Dulce et Decorum Est and Crane’s Do Not Weep, Maiden, For War Is Kind
Comparing Owen’s Dulce et Decorum Est and Crane’s Do Not Weep, Maiden, For War Is Kind
Both Stephen Crane’s “Do Not Weep, Maiden, For War Is Kind” and Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est” use vivid images, diction rich with connotation, similes, and metaphors to portray the irony between the idealized glory of war and the lurid reality of war. However, by looking at the different ways these elements are used in each poem, it is clear that the speakers in the two poems are soldiers who come from opposite ends of the spectrum of military ranks. One speaker is an officer and the other is a foot soldier. Each of the speakers/soldiers is dealing with the repercussions from his own realities of the horror of war based on his duty during the battle.
The speaker in “War is Kind” is an officer who grapples with his own conscience in an internal monologue. He is struggling with his feelings of guilt over leading younger soldiers into battle and his military responsibility to cover up the truth. One way of interpreting this poem is to consider that the officer is attending a traditional military funeral for one of his soldiers. This can be seen in the way the stanzas are set up in the poem. In the first, third, and fifth stanzas, the speaker appears to be consoling the weeping loved ones of a soldier who died in the war. This would normally be the job of an officer who leads a regiment into battle. Consoling the family members is a powerful tool for conveying the reality of war. Addressing loved ones of a deceased soldier illustrates the loss and suffering to be dealt with by those left behind. He speaks to a “maiden” (1), a “babe” (12), and a “mother” (23), thereby, conveying one of the most significant truths about wa…
… middle of paper …
…and Consulted
Cather, Willa. “Stephen Crane’s Do Not Weep, Maiden, For War Is Kind.” In Willa Cather on Writing: Critical Studies on Writing as an Art. Lincoln: Bison-U of Nebraska P, 1988: 67-74.
Crane, Stephen. “Do not weep, maiden, for war is kind.” The Modern Age Literature. Eds Leonard Lief and James F. Light. 4th Ed. Holt, Rhinehart and Winston; New York, 1981. p. 137
Grualman, Robert Edward, Jr. “Wilfred Owen.” Critical Survey of Poetry. English Language
Series. Rev. ed. 5. Ed. Frank N. Magill. Pasadena: Salem P, 1992. 2530-2531.
Kerr, Douglas. Wilfred Owen’s Voices: Language and Community. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993.
Knapp, Bettina L. Stephen Crane. New York: The Ungar Publishing Company, 1987. 172-174.
Owen, Wilfred. “Dulce Et Decorum Est.” World War I British Poets. Ed. Candace Ward. Dover Publications, Inc; New York, 1997.