Would we like a fiction Book Club?

[Unrulysun]

So that we could do some feminist analysis of fiction I mean? I was thinking maybe some classics but possibly we all know that Rochester has to be emasculated before Jane blah blah and we'd prefer to do others?

Would anyone be up for it? Would it work? What would we read? Other questions I haven't thought of?

that sounds like a good idea.

The Women's Room by Marilyn French would be a good place to start.

I know that Andrea Dworkin wrote some fiction but know nothing about it.

Virginia Woolf...

Historical fiction would be good too, to discuss how things have changed (0r not) over time.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath.

Margaret Atwood...

As for classics I'd suggest Anna Karenina, Moll Flanders, Madame Bovary.

Are Toni Morrison's novels feminist. I've heard of her but not sure if it's suitable.

Alice Walker...

I think there should be a range of places/ times/ themes etc.

The yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

oranges are not the only fruit by Jeanette Winterspoon- I've not read the book but saw the tv series repeated recently.

Although it doesn't have to be all serious. Doing a chick lit book would make the discussion more accessible to a wider audience.

Maya Angelou

Jean Rhys

If we want wider audience, what about I don't know how she does it

Oh yes FB that would be the point - to come at it from a feminist angle :)

lots of suggestions - we can easily fill a year already! I would suggest we start in a month or so to give everyone time to read. Do we want Villette or Northanger Abbey?

Rhadegunde how does the other book club work practically? How do you decide onbooks and timings I mean? We should probably do this two weeks after that tbh so that if people want to do both they have a chance to read them.

'Beloved' is such a good book. Not an easy read but amazing.

If its between Vilette and Northanger I vote the latter......

Given the other thread, we have to have Tess, don't we?

Ooh ooh and Jude the Obscure if we're going in for Hardy

I'd go for Northanger too. It is a realtively short book and easy to read. Only read Under the Greenwood Tree by Hardy and that was about 25 years ago and I barely remember it! So happy to be led on that score.

Another vote here for Vilette

Also, maybe Angela Carter?

Or mayor of casterbridge - wife selling etc. and weak male lead - not mayor, you know the weak one fooroofrr....

Have never read Vilette and would look forward to doing so

Wow Hardy is a good one for feminist analysis isn't he?

And Dickens was crap at women.

Which leads me to reluctantly conclude that we ought to have some Dickens

Did men read this fiction from Victorian times or was it purely for women to read? When it was written i mean.

And did that have any influence on how the writers wrote??

Surely we need some modern stuff too, though. Considering we're all saying that we are still not equal, some good feminist critiques of contemporary literature would be good, I think. I mean, we all know Bill Sikes beating Nancy to death is the epitome of violence against women, but that was in Victorian times. I've noticed myself picking up on lots of misogyny and sexism in random novels I've been reading lately - would love to read them with a pencil and make notes and then tell everyone on here how 'good at feminism' I am becoming to be able to spot things!

Noooo no Dickens . Just taken me back to English Lit O'Level [shudders].

L-shaped room was good! I read that as a teenager so only have a hazy recollection of it but I do remember enjoying it. I also read The Good Mother around the same time. Not sure what I'd make of that now - looking through feminist eyes!

Oooh Mayor of Casterbridge has some interesting stuff going on

Loved Mayor of Casterbridge (memories of A Levels...). Its looooooooooong, but The Woman in White has a lot to offer too...
I'd like to try some SciFi (Women on the Edge of Time?) as well.....blime I think we have several years worth here....