Abstract
To what extent have our women novelists written about any alternatives to the pursuit of the heterosexual ‘marital bliss’ that is so often at the heart of some fiction? Do women find more freedom by taking lovers, living in communes, or making homes with their own sex? In recent twentieth-century fiction, some women are represented as wanting to cut themselves off completely from the dominance of men, especially from that male craving for power which is often evident in sexual relationships. Celibacy and lesbianism, are, for some women, the only responses to the problem of how to free themselves from male power.
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Notes and References
May Sarton, The Magnificent Spinster (New York: W. W. Norton, 1985); reprinted London: The Women’s Press, 1986, p. 58.
Joanna Russ, On Strike Against God (USA: Out & Out Books, 1980); reprinted London: The Women’s Press, 1987, pp. 6–7.
Marge Piercy, The High Cost of Living (USA: Doubleday & Co., 1978); reprinted London, The Women’s Press, 1979, pp. 2–3.
Elizabeth Jolley, Miss Peabody’s Inheritance ( Queensland: University of Queensland Press, 1983 ) pp. 139–41.
May Sarton, A Reckoning (New York: W. W. Norton, 1978; London: Victor Gollancz, 1980); reprinted The Women’s Press, 1984, p. 13.
Nicky Edwards, Mud ( London: The Women’s Press, 1986 ) p. 76.
Alice Walker, The Color Purple ( New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983; London: The Women’s Press, 1983 ) pp. 97–8.
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© 1990 Jennifer Breen
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Breen, J. (1990). Alternatives to marriage. In: In Her Own Write. Women in Society. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20965-1_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20965-1_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-44792-5
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