Female Intellectuals Research Articles

Madness and Resistance under the Flashback and Juxtaposition—Spatial Narration in The Bell Jar

The Bell Jar, the only novel by American poet and writer Sylvia Plath, vividly portrays the marginalized experience of American women in the mid-20th century and depicts the struggles of female intellectuals in constructing their own identities.This paper, by using the concepts of flashback and juxtaposition in spatial narration theory, explores three key aspects: the physical spatial changes in the whole story, the interplay between psychological and physical spaces under flashbacks and juxtaposition, and the protagonist Esther’s resistance against the male-dominated society and her awakening of female consciousness in the bell jar. It analyzes how Esther’s psychological space evolves within the ever-shifting physical spaces, leading to her feelings of helplessness, despair, and madness. Furthermore, it examines how through her rebellious madness, Esther achieves her awakening of female consciousness, constructs her own identity as a female intellectual, and raises her voice in a male-dominated society oppressive at the time.

Identity Annihilation in Ann Bradstreet’s Poetry

A ‘City upon a Hill’ has always been the phrase which depicted the ideal and the perfect society the puritans sought to establish in Massachusetts, yet there can be several discrepancies noticed within their social and intellectual life and the way they dealt with the female intellectuals and poets. The current study tackles the way puritan patriarchal society marginalizes female writers and intellectuals, such as Ann Bradstreet, in a way that demolishes their identities. It also aims to depict these female intellectuals as breakers of the social norms in challenging the Puritan spiritual authority and its social system, so their writings were not valuable, and their voices were not heard. More significantly, the study shows how the social/religious conventions created within the puritan were used as a weapon against female writers. Thus, for puritans, the idea of women being writers or poets was not acceptable.

Study on the Translation of Culture-loaded Words in The File No.113

All nations in the world have generated many culture-loaded words full of cultural origin and emotional attachment in the evolution of social life. Due to the huge differences between Chinese and Western cultures, it is difficult for translators to find the equivalent expression when translating culture-loaded words. Chen Hongbi is an outstanding female translator in modern times, and her translation of the English detective novel Le Dossier No.113 was very popular in the late Qing Dynasty. From the perspective of eco-translatology, this study takes Chen Hongbi's The File No.113(《第一百十三案》) as an example and analyzes the translation of culture-loaded words in the text. In the late Qing Dynasty, the social demand for female intellectuals, the academic demand for detective novels and the interest demand of publishing houses formed a sound ecological environment for Chen's translation of foreign detective novels. Chen adapted himself to this ecological environment with his translation ability and love for detective novels, thus choosing to translate Le Dossier No.113. In the process of translation, Chen reaches the adaptation and transformation of culture-loaded words from three dimensions linguistic dimension, cultural dimension and communicative dimension. This study describes how Chen Hongbi accurately conveys the meaning of culture-loaded words to the target readers based on the ecological environment of translation through the mechanism of "selection" and "adaptation", which is helpful to understand and explain the choices made by the translators in order to realize the communicative intention and adapt to the context of the late Qing Dynasty. By analyzing Chen's successful translation of the detective novel, this study hopes to make readers realize the value of her translation as well as her adaptation and selection in translation so as to provide references for future translators to consider deep adaptation and selection when translating culture-loaded words.

Establishing a female intellectual identity in early modern Denmark

AbstractThis article explores Birgitte Thott's (1610–1662) intellectual identity by investigating the paratexts to her translation of Seneca's philosophical works (1658) in a European context. Written partly by Thott herself and partly by other scholars, these texts assisted in creating Thott's public persona and in establishing Thott as a female intellectual in early modern Denmark. As there was a certain tension for female intellectuals between participating in the public sphere and living up to the gender norms of their times, it was difficult for them to become recognised as public figures. While Thott is praised by others as an exception, Thott herself developed different strategies to address the tensions between traditional gender roles and her intellectual activities. In an unconventional way, Thott dedicated her work to women, aiming at a broad consent in society for female learning and encouraging other women to follow her example. She presented her own work as a serious contribution to the Christian tradition of engaging with Stoic philosophy. This article contributes to mapping the development of a female intellectual identity during the early modern period by focusing on a geographical region that is often overlooked in research about the topic.

野上弥生子小说《森》的“圣所”意象分析

Japanese female writer Yaeko Nogami reviewed her school life eighty years ago in her novel “Mori” with mixed facts and fictions, and described the 15-year-old heroine “Kane Kikuchi” from Kyushu to a women’s school in the forest on the outskirts of Tokyo. This article focuses on how the writer in the novel “Mori” creates the image of a “sanctuary” that pursues freedom and longs for true knowledge through the oak forest, and analyzes the enlightenment that Meiji Women’s School serves as the starting point of the writer's self-cognition. Discuss the way Japanese female intellectuals dealt with their daily life practices during the social transformation period at the beginning of the 20th century, and convey the intertwining and resistance of the internal ideal world and external events of women's education at that time.

“Quiet & Clever Together”: Reassessing the Significance of Elite Women and the Literary Culture of the Country House

ABSTRACT This article examines elite women’s agency and participation in the literary life of the country house, focusing on the circle that centred on Jemima Marchioness Grey and her husband, Philip Yorke, at Wrest Park in Bedfordshire. The “Society at Wrest” was an exclusive group of close friends and family that included Grey’s childhood friends, Mary Gregory (née Grey) and Catherine Talbot, as well as her sisters-in-law, Elizabeth Anson and Margaret Heathcote (née Yorke). Most members of the Wrest Circle were careful about publishing their works, yet they found a cerebral escape in the shades of “Vacuna” – the name they affectionately gave to Wrest – as they created private literary compositions. Although Grey did not contribute to her friends’ literary compositions, she did, as hostess, play an invaluable role in providing a space at Wrest Park that facilitated and nurtured their intellectual and artistic endeavours. Disrupting the scholarly emphasis on public-facing female intellectuals, this article argues that for some elite women, the value of belonging to a coterie was not about attracting literary fame but rather having access to a permissive environment in which they could embark on private literary pursuits and belong to an exclusive and supportive intellectual network.

‘Half dead survivor’ (A debate on ‘Chand’ special issue: 1923)

This essay pertains to the plight of widows within Indian culture, as discussed by female intellectuals of a Hindi women’s magazine. Beginning with a survey of the prevailing condition of women in the early 20th century that was predominantly a continuation of the traditional social order with little changes, the essay situates this as the backdrop for the examination of widows’ position. This article sheds light on the various atrocities that were inflicted upon widows, who were subjected to a form of enslavement within their culture. In particular, this essay emphasizes the challenges that widows must had to overcome in order to reclaim their agency and dignity in the face of these oppressive circumstances. The present article posits that the struggle of widows is an issue of individual consciousness, and it aims to examine the everyday unease experienced by widows through a periodical lens. Throughout the 20th century, widows were considered an element of extreme dislike and a dependent community, rendering them an unsuspicious part of Indian society. The paper investigates into the anxiety and uneasiness experienced by widows with regard to their religious-cultural associates, practices, and the secluded pain they endure, which reinforces women’s identities as social threats. Furthermore, the article examines the criticism leveled by conservative groups at the editor of the journal “Chand”1 for advocating widow remarriage after introducing a special issue on widows.

USING VIETNAM'S CURRENT CONTINGENT OF SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL INTELLECTUALS - REALITY AND SOLUTIONS

As a province in the Mekong Delta, Vinh Long located in the central location of the delta in the Lower Mekong River Basin. With many name changes, from May 05, 1992, the name Vinh Long has been used up to now. Vinh Long is known as the “Southern land of the talented”, the “sacred land of the talented”. After the liberation of the South and reunification of the country, Vinh Long intellectuals, including scientific and technological intellectuals, were continued to be respected by the revolutionary government, and thrived, making great contributions to the development of the province. In 2022, Vinh Long's population was 1,029,015 people, and labor force was 612,369 people, accounting for 59.5% of the population, of which scientific and technological intellectuals accounted for 5.42% (33,217 people). Number of scientific and technological intellectuals awarded bachelor, master to PhD degrees all increased. In addition, there is not much difference between male and female intellectuals in Vinh Long. Intellectuals aged from 30 years old to under 40 years old accounted for 38.22%, and intellectuals aged from 40 years old to under 50 years old accounted for 28.52%. In addition to the achieved results, Vinh Long's scientific and technological intellectuals also have many limitations such as: the number of scientific projects is not much; the implementation progress is still slow; in addition, intellectuals with PhD degrees are concentrated in universities. From the above facts, it is necessary to have solutions to develop scientific and technological intellectuals in Vinh Long province in the current period to effectively serve the local economic and social development.

Displacement, women intellectuals and entangled knowledge in the making of global modernity

This article offers a perspective on how the proposed conceptualisation of the idea of displacement can be used to analyse processes of knowledge formation and transformation brought about by the movement of intellectuals in modernity. It develops a theoretical framework that considers the acts of cultural mediation and spatial displacement as key aspects for understanding the structures of knowledge and cultural interpretation produced in the formation of modernity. Making use of historical–sociological tools, it examines biographical information along with the intellectual contributions of two female intellectuals, Flora Tristan (1803–1844) and Nísia Floresta (1810–1855). This contribution seeks to re-address the problem how to understand modernity from a decentred point of view. It procdeds by discussing how the history of modernity and its different cultural manifestations should be analysed with greater attention to practices of mediation and theoretical interpretations as developed by lesser-known intellectuals. Thus, the article also contributes to analysing the agency of women intellectuals in the history of modernity.

The Discursive Construction of Populist and Misogynist Nationalism: Digital Vigilantism Against Unpatriotic Intellectual Women in China

The phenomenon of nationalist digital vigilantism targeting Chinese intellectual women is rising in China. To illustrate how national identities and social exclusion are discursively constructed, as well as the potential vulnerabilities experienced by Chinese female intellectuals, four high-profile cases that took place between 2017 and 2021 are chosen. Critical discourse analysis is conducted on collected Sina Weibo comments, WeChat public account articles, and news articles published by state-run media. The research identifies three main discourses: the ungrateful traitor, the corrupt elite, and the ugly slut. These discursive interactions demonstrate the fluidity of both discursive and operational conditions in nationalist digital vigilantism, which amplifies the targets’ vulnerability. This research contributes to the study of misogynist populist nationalism by providing an empirical analysis in an under-studied social context—China, and to the study of Chinese populist nationalism by foregrounding an under-studied perspective—misogyny.

The role of technological female intellectuals in Vietnam in the trend of globalization and international integration

The role of technological female intellectuals in Vietnam in the trend of globalization and international integration

A Doll's House and the Dilemma of Chinese Female Intellectuals in the 1920s and 1930s

A Doll's House and the Dilemma of Chinese Female Intellectuals in the 1920s and 1930s

Francisca Wood and Nineteenth-Century Periodical Culture: Pressing for Change by Cláudia Pazos Alonso

Reviewed by: Francisca Wood and Nineteenth-Century Periodical Culture: Pressing for Change by Cláudia Pazos Alonso Leticia Villamediana González Francisca Wood and Nineteenth-Century Periodical Culture: Pressing for Change. By Cláudia Pazos Alonso. Cambridge: Legenda. 2020. xi+250 pp. £75. ISBN 978–1–781887–99–8. Cláudia Pazos Alonso's monograph explores the fascinating life and career of a neglected but ground-breaking Portuguese writer, journalist, and translator. As a cultural agent, an unorthodox and freethinking intellectual, an activist, and a mentor, Wood's multifaceted profile, work, and influence have at last found belated recognition and celebration in this full-length account that also provides an overview of the intellectual landscape of the period. Wood (1802–1900), the reader is convincingly shown, was an early and important precursor of first-wave feminism. Carefully documented, the monograph is composed of an Introduction, six chapters, a Conclusion, and a Bibliography, followed by three extremely valuable appendices that list over ninety works published by Tipografia Luso-Britânica, Wood's own press ('Tipografia Luso-Britânica'; 'List of Editorials by Francisca Wood'; 'List of Editorials'). Chapter 1 beautifully reconstructs the life and family background of both Francisca and her British husband, William Thorold Wood. Although information on Francisca is scant, Pazos Alonso succeeds in piecing together key moments from her biographical timeline, through the detailed exploration of articles and references in periodicals, as well as of different Portuguese archives and sites, such as the British cemetery in Lisbon, where the couple were buried. There is a significant focus on Wood's years in Britain given that, as Pazos Alonso argues, the Victorian era and the British political landscape between 1820 and 1850 impacted her later work and journalistic career. This is particularly evident on her return to Portugal in the 1860s, where the couple showed an educational and political commitment, contributing to female learning. It is precisely this presence of women in print culture that Chapter 2 scrutinizes, paying attention to the contributions of three other female intellectuals who have remained in the margins of Portuguese literary history. In so doing, Pazos Alonso not only demonstrates women's active contribution to periodical culture, but also shows how Wood's modern ideas and [End Page 508] journalistic work, especially her weekly A Voz Feminina (1868–69; known as O Progresso in latter years) stood up among her peers and became 'an unquestionable milestone in the Portuguese context' (p. 77). As such, the following chapters are dedicated to the detailed analysis of the periodical. Chapter 3 focuses on the progressive editorial team, mainly comprised of female contributors led by Francisca herself, who signed half of the editorials as well as other types of wittily crafted and transgressive articles, such as open letters addressed to distinguished men in power. All these political pieces, as Chapters 4 and 5 reveal, opened up debate on social issues such as the protection of animals and tackled gender discrimination and inequality, offering a searing critique of both Church and male hegemony, in an attempt to emancipate both men and women as a means to regenerate society and the country. Finally, Chapter 6 examines the cosmopolitan dimension of A Voz Feminina: that is, how the weekly contributed to the dissemination of foreign news on women's rights, becoming a cultural mediator and a key agent in a transnational network of periodicals that echoed the Woman Question across Europe and the Atlantic. By bringing Wood's ideas back to an English-reading audience, Pazos Alonso's compelling and engaging study not only rescues a prime Portuguese journalist and intellectual from cultural oblivion, but also grants her a well-deserved transnational place in feminist and gender scholarship. Leticia Villamediana González University of Warwick Copyright © 2022 Modern Humanities Research Association

Female Self-affirmation and Self-fulfilment in Nwapa’s One is Enough (1981)

The portrayal of women in most African male-authored novels which appeared before and after the independences, frustrated many African female intellectuals. The latter considered that some African men writers have not presented a fair image of women in their writings. For them, they have marginalised and relegated women to second-class citizens. Thus, these female intellectuals set out in their turn to write literary texts in which they correct what they considered to be shortcomings in African male writings. Among these women writers stands out Flora Nwapa who deals in One is Enough (1981) with issues such as gender, sexuality, tradition, postcolonialism, modernity, culture, sociology, psychology and materialism in Nigerian society in particular and African societies in general. Leaning on African feminism, postcolonialism, sociology and psychology as theories, this article analyses female self-fulfilment and self-affirmation in One is Enough. In this perspective, the paper zeroes in on the awareness-raising about women’s right to defend their opinion and physical integrity. It also sheds light on the possibility for women to find fulfilment outside marriage.

Teaching transnational Morrison: curation and comparative American studies

ABSTRACT This article is the edited text of a talk given in May 2021 for the AHRC-funded Black Female Intellectuals network. It argues that through comparative, transnational work American Studies scholars can widen the definition of who is considered a Black Female Intellectual first in terms of what we understand to be public intellectual work and also in terms of who American Studies scholars recognise as Black. I explore the act of curation as an act of public intellectualism by looking closely at exhibitions curated by African American writer Toni Morrison and Aboriginal Australian artist Fiona Foley. I then discuss Foley’s work as a ‘Blak’ Female Intellectual and argue that as such, her work should be engaged with and taught within transnational, comparative American Studies classrooms.

Introduction: Black Female Intellectuals in Historical and Contemporary Context

Introduction: Black Female Intellectuals in Historical and Contemporary Context

Women’s Issues: African Writers Fighting Portuguese Colonialism in the 1950s

This essay approaches the literary production by female intellectuals who opposed Portuguese colonialism in Africa, recognising their active role in history, as well as the cultural and political processes that influenced their writing and its repercussions. Experiencing multiple forms of subalternity – of class, race and gender – women like Alda Espírito Santo, Alda Lara, Noémia de Sousa Deolinda Rodrigues and Manuela Margarido were committed to the creation of new ways of writing and forms of conceiving the world. Playing a fundamental role in the literary, political and cultural environment of the second half of the 20th century, they circulated in spaces in which they questioned male hegemony, discussing gender issues and exercising multiple forms of resistance. This article will consider how the demands of women in the process of political decolonisation have often been reduced to the label of ‘women’s issues’, the idea of unification of struggles having been privileged instead.

Promise and devotion: catholicism and Girl Guides in Brazil

This paper attempts to analyze the main justifications for the expansion of Girl Guides in Brazil, a movement that featured a strong expression of female association, a tactic mobilized by certain female Catholic intellectuals to legitimize their circulation in the public space. It indicates education, culture and assistance as important fronts, in a group of actions aimed at securing the Catholic foundations of Brazilian society. Although the elementary principle of Girl Guides wasn’t connected to any one religion or belief, it’s possible to assess that the movement in Brazil was strongly intertwined with a religious and moral discourse in the form of the “good Girl Guide”, who should be pious and devoted to her promise of serving God and country, with clearly Catholic roots.

한말 여성잡지 『여자지남(女子指南)』의 여성교육론과 여성 '국민' 형성

In the early 20th century, Korean intellectuals and educators tried to acquire the justification for women''s education by raising the theory of gender equality and home education. Along with the theory of gender equality and home education, what they tried to support the justification of women''s education and set the ultimate educational goal was the formation of a ‘people’, civilization, and the establishment of a modern nation. The logic of forming a ‘national’ through women’s education was roughly divided into two categories. First, it was that women themselves should become part of the ‘people’ on an equal footing with men and fulfill their duties and responsibilities of establishing a modern state, and for this purpose, men and women should receive equal education. The second was that home education was important to make children, especially sons, future ‘nationals’, and that it was important to educate women as mothers who would be in charge of home education. In Yeojajinam, the formation of feminine national based on the theory of gender equality and the ‘national formation theory’ through home education were raised together to persuade the justification of women’s education. Formation of the ‘national’ insisted on by the theory of home education emphasized the role, duty and responsibility of women to form a ‘national’ through ‘motherhood’ rather than women''s independence and acquisition of rights and freedoms. On the other hand, the theory of feminine national that men and women should receive equal education and fulfill their duties and responsibilities as equal ‘citizens’ had the potential to develop into a modern women''s liberation movement and feminist movement by emphasizing women''s independence, rights and freedom. However, there was no discussion about the social and political rights or freedoms that women can enjoy as ‘citizens’ even in the claim that men and women are equal ‘citizens’. Some female intellectuals and educators made it the goal of women''s education to free themselves from men''s oppression and restraint, to develop self-reliance, to acquire freedom and rights, and to become ‘citizens’ on an equal footing with men. However, in the crisis of loss of national sovereignty, women as ‘nationals’ were only required to have the duty and responsibility to achieve national civilization and prosperity and establish a modern state.

Knowing oneself and one’s home country: Reflections on Fang Junbi's experiences from the perspectives of emotions and feminist history

Fang Junbi 方君璧 was a famous Chinese female painter of the twentieth century and a core member of the Wang Jingwei 汪精衛 clique. As an intellectual woman of both the old and new eras, she had fierce national affection and patriotic zeal and also held moral ideals on the lasting loyalty and unchanging nature of love and friendship. During World War II she experienced the loss of country and family and the course of Wang Jingwei seeking peace with Japan. While extremely pained internally, her feelings for Wang remained as strong as ever, and when he fell gravely ill she risked her life to travel to Japan to be with him. Wang gave her an inkstone as a parting gift, signifying that the affection between the two was as solid as stone. During the 1970s she accepted an invitation to return to China where she witnessed the historic achievements of New China and sincerely identified with the Communist Party of China and its revolutionary culture. Knowing herself and her home country was the deepest sentiment of her life, and these two sentiments cannot be fully accounted for using the narrative of "women's liberation" in Chinese revolution or Western feminist discourse. Through the winding path of affection in the deep spiritual connection between Fang Junbi and her sister Fang Junying 方君瑛, her husband Zeng Zhongming 曾仲鳴, and her teacher and friend Wang Jingwei, we can understand their personalities, values, and modes of behavior, enriching our knowledge of the world of affection, ethics, and souls of modern Chinese female intellectuals, and providing resources for reflecting on the personal growth of women today.