Interesting question today in class, "Is Jane Eyre a woman's story?" I couldn't quiet my mind. My answer? Gosh no! Unless we can consider The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to be a man's story, which I do not. Or Uncle Tom's Cabin to be a black person story which it should not be. The problem I have is that we continue to label things in a way that aligns the term "woman" with suffering or strife or even the overcoming of such. Slaves that were freed were no longer considered slaves but a woman is always a woman whether or not she aligns herself with suffering, strife or victory. If a slave narrative follows the life of a slave for decades after they were freed the narrative is till effected by the fact that they were at one time a slave or are a former slave. Women born 300 years from now should not be burdened by an inferiority complex simply because we decided that somehow a story of an oppressed woman had anything to do with who they are. Which it does not. It has something to do with how they are treated and what opportunities they will have, but it is not what makes them a woman. I agree that it should be given a name, however. There are enough similar stories of women's suffrage to create a category but we must choose our terms wisely. Then again, if the question only meant to ask if this is a story that is considered to be about a woman, titled, Jane Eyre, then my answer is "Yes, of course, but who would ask such a silly question?" Is it an English Woman's story? Is it a 19th Century woman's story? Is it a 19th century, oppressed English woman's bildungsroman? Now we're getting somewhere!
I later discovered that the label I was searching for was "Feminist Literature" and it, as a genre, has existed for hundreds of years... but has never been taught, that I know of.
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