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Thursday, September 19, 2013
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Revisiting Shakespeare, Macbeth, and Feminism...
So we're covering Shakespeare (specifically the major tragedies, Hamlet as a class and Macbeth, Lear, and Othello in small independent reading groups) in my College Prep English course right now, and I have the students posting blogs in response to their outside reading of the tragedies. I've been particularly troubled/intrigued/interested in the blogs that have dealt with Macbeth, as the students have inevitably spent sometime--some have spent a lot of time--on the fact that Lady Macbeth drives her husband to his crime.
All the students who discuss how easily Macbeth is swayed to murder--by the witches and their prophecy, by his own ambition and finally by Lady Macbeth when he wavers in I.vii--find primary fault not with Macbeth, nor with Lady Macbeth's argument, but with the lady's sex and her social position of wife. The thing that seemed most disturbing to them about the sequence wasn't the ruthless evil of her argument but the fact the she as a woman and as a wife persuaded Macbeth to act.
What disturbed me most was the assumption implicit in these posts that it is inherently "unmanly" for husband to allow his wife to influence his decisions, or by extension for man to be counseled or directed by a woman. And so I've been kicking around what they said, and kicking around my own thoughts on Shakespeare in general and Macbeth in particular, on Shakespeare's inevitably complex approach to his plays' major themes, and the extent to which he challenges or fails to challenge the gender constructions of his day.
Certainly there are moments when Shakespeare falls far short of treating his female characters the way a modern reader would want them to be treated. He is a product of his time and we of ours and he inevitably shows the influence of his environment. One need only think in passing of The Taming of the Shrew or King Lear (in which the tragic hero's hamartia seems to consist of not only abdicating the position in which God has placed him but giving power [gasp!] to women) to find ready examples. Still, there are strong female characters who must be accounted for--Beatrice of Much Ado About Nothing, Portia of A Merchant of Venice, and, yes, Lady Macbeth.
In replying to the students and challenging some of the underlying misogyny implicit in their fear of Lady Macbeth having actually changed her husband's mind (O crime of crimes!) or given him direction, I found myself discussing the fact that Lady Macbeth is a character the audience is clearly meant to find repugnant. In doing so I thought about her, and about her attempts to motivate her husband by verbally assaulting his manhood, and decided that I find nothing repugnant in her attempting to direct or persuade her husband, and I don't that is the element intended to cause the audience's rejection of Lady Macbeth. And while her professed willingness to murder her own child is horrific that is as much from sheer lack of human feeling as it is tied to her sex or her role as wife and mother. No, I think the primary element of the scene that is offensive here, and that is intended to be offensive here, is a definition of strength and manhood that includes things like being willing to murder, to step over moral codes and boundaries.
By placing this description of violent and amoral "manliness" in the mouth of a character so obviously vile, I think Shakespeare is intentionally challenging this formulation of strength. We are meant to despise Lady Macbeth, and all that is inhuman about her, including her linking of strength and manhood to a willingness to give in to our basest desires in order to force the world to our will. I think Lady Macbeth's strength of will and character is something admirable in itself; it is the misplaced sense of what constitutes strength and manhood that transform that will and strength of spirit into something that is disturbing and haunting. Lady Macbeth's sex and her role as wife/mother is at most tangential to the moral wrong presented.
All the students who discuss how easily Macbeth is swayed to murder--by the witches and their prophecy, by his own ambition and finally by Lady Macbeth when he wavers in I.vii--find primary fault not with Macbeth, nor with Lady Macbeth's argument, but with the lady's sex and her social position of wife. The thing that seemed most disturbing to them about the sequence wasn't the ruthless evil of her argument but the fact the she as a woman and as a wife persuaded Macbeth to act.
What disturbed me most was the assumption implicit in these posts that it is inherently "unmanly" for husband to allow his wife to influence his decisions, or by extension for man to be counseled or directed by a woman. And so I've been kicking around what they said, and kicking around my own thoughts on Shakespeare in general and Macbeth in particular, on Shakespeare's inevitably complex approach to his plays' major themes, and the extent to which he challenges or fails to challenge the gender constructions of his day.
Certainly there are moments when Shakespeare falls far short of treating his female characters the way a modern reader would want them to be treated. He is a product of his time and we of ours and he inevitably shows the influence of his environment. One need only think in passing of The Taming of the Shrew or King Lear (in which the tragic hero's hamartia seems to consist of not only abdicating the position in which God has placed him but giving power [gasp!] to women) to find ready examples. Still, there are strong female characters who must be accounted for--Beatrice of Much Ado About Nothing, Portia of A Merchant of Venice, and, yes, Lady Macbeth.
In replying to the students and challenging some of the underlying misogyny implicit in their fear of Lady Macbeth having actually changed her husband's mind (O crime of crimes!) or given him direction, I found myself discussing the fact that Lady Macbeth is a character the audience is clearly meant to find repugnant. In doing so I thought about her, and about her attempts to motivate her husband by verbally assaulting his manhood, and decided that I find nothing repugnant in her attempting to direct or persuade her husband, and I don't that is the element intended to cause the audience's rejection of Lady Macbeth. And while her professed willingness to murder her own child is horrific that is as much from sheer lack of human feeling as it is tied to her sex or her role as wife and mother. No, I think the primary element of the scene that is offensive here, and that is intended to be offensive here, is a definition of strength and manhood that includes things like being willing to murder, to step over moral codes and boundaries.
By placing this description of violent and amoral "manliness" in the mouth of a character so obviously vile, I think Shakespeare is intentionally challenging this formulation of strength. We are meant to despise Lady Macbeth, and all that is inhuman about her, including her linking of strength and manhood to a willingness to give in to our basest desires in order to force the world to our will. I think Lady Macbeth's strength of will and character is something admirable in itself; it is the misplaced sense of what constitutes strength and manhood that transform that will and strength of spirit into something that is disturbing and haunting. Lady Macbeth's sex and her role as wife/mother is at most tangential to the moral wrong presented.
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Superstars Writing Seminars
I had the wonderful privilege of attending the 2013 edition of the Superstars Writing Seminars. This seminar is a business of writing seminar (although craft inevitably slips in a bit when you have this many writers hanging out talking for three days) taught by Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca Moesta, Eric Flint, Brandon Sanderson, and David Farland (Wolverton). They add various guest instructors each year. Last year Dean Wesley Smith and James Artimus Owen attended as guest instructors, and this year’s guest instructors included bestselling romance writer Joan Johnston, Mark Leslie Lefebvre of Kobo, James A. Owen, Tracy Hickman, and Jim Minz of Baen Books. If you’re unfamiliar with any of these names, they are mostly giants (and if you don’t buy giants because it is subjective, than bestsellers is inarguable) of science-fiction and fantasy, although Farland has written outside the genre, and the guest instructors can vary widely.
With panels discussing everything from balancing a writing life with a “real life” (whatever that means…) to the details of contracts, to inspirational presentations, to an entire day discussing ebooks and indie publishing there is an incredible depth and breadth of knowledge covered here in these three days. In addition the instructors are available for meals which often resemble one-on-one and/or small-group tutoring sessions (I had the privilege of dining/”lunching” with several of the instructors over the three days and am quite grateful for the friendship and knowledge extended each time).
The session is made up primarily of people in the early stages of a publishing career. That is, this is not eager-beaver college students or still dreaming oldsters who only talk/think about writing. We had several published authors among the attendees, winners of the Writers of the Future Contest, and one of my new friends walked out of the conference and his first follow up post to the seminar’s facebook page was to announce that he is meeting with an Independent publisher who bought his pitch and wants to see his manuscript on Monday. So not that true beginners couldn’t benefit from the seminar, they absolutely could. I left feeling like I needed to keep my head straight so knowledge wouldn’t spill out my ears if I leaned my head too far to one side. And honestly, with only a non-SFFWA (Science-Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America) short-story publishing credit to my name, I am probably a little closer to wet-behind-the-ears newbie than most attendees, but this seminar is designed to help those on the cusp push over.
If you are interested not just in writing, but in developing a career as a writer. Give yourself the opportunity of a leg up. Join us next year for Superstars Writing Seminars.
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