The Witch And The Goddess In The Stories Of Isak Dinesen: A Feminist Reading

160 Pages·1988·34.494 MB·English

by  Sara Stambaugh

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feminist retldin
The sexual and religious radicalism
of Isak Dinesen, the extraordinary
Baroness Blixen, caught the world un
prepared, and the writer was bitterly aware
of the restrictions placed on her intelli
gence and talents. In this comprehensive
feminist survey of Dinesen's fiction, novelist
Sara Stambaugh reveals how the restrictions
faced by all women became a pervasive
theme in Dinesen's work. Stambaugh
argues that Dinesen's heroines undermine
and subvert male dominance, often exploit
ing the very conventions forced upon them.
The stories, set in the nineteenth century,
prove to be examinations of what Dinesen
confronted as a woman in the first half of the
twentieth.
Stambaugh argues that in characters
Dinesen referred to as her "witches," the
author celebrated specifically female
powers. Dinesen's witches represent her
ideal of womanhood - women who are
rebellious, yet skilled at traditionally femi
nine arts, independent, yet seductive. Free
and autonomous, they are emblems of
female power. Stambaugh also examines
Dinesen's rejection of Christianity, which
she saw as exalting male spirit at the ex
pense of female flesh. Influenced by the
works of both Friedrich Nietzsche and Sir
James Frazer, Dinesen evolved her own
pantheistic Goddess, a decidedly female
deity encompassing both good and evil.
Stambaugh's unique study embraces
the entirety of Dinesen's work, using textual
analysis and history of ideas, and drawing
on Dinesen's essays and letters, as well as
on the full range of recent Dinesen criticism.
The picture of Dinesen that emerges is
of a writer whose rejection of social and
sexual constraints, presentation of women
as figures of power, and alternative
vision of a female godhead anticipated
important elements of modern feminism.
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The Witch and the Goddess
in the Stories of Isak Dinesen
A Feminist Reading
Literature Advisory Boards Challenging the Literary Canon
Studies in Modern Literature
A. Walton Lit.z, Series Editor
Other Titles in This Series
Prince1011 Universi1y
Consulting Editors
Transcending Gender: The Male/Female
Joseph Blotner
Double in Women's Fiction
University of Michigan
George Bornstein Joanne Blum
University of Michigan
.Jackson R. Bryer
University of Maryla11d
at College Park
Ronald Bush
California lrrstituce of Tech110/ogy
Keith Cushman
Unfrersity of North Carolina
at Gree11sboro
Richard J. Finneran
Newcomb College. Tula11e University
Daniel Mark Fogel
Louisiana Suue University
Carolyn G. Heilbrun
Columbil, University
Paul Mariani
Univ;rsiry of Massaclw.,·etts
at Amherst
Thomas C. Moser
Stanford U11iversity
Linda Wagner
Michigan Su11e U11iversiry
Nineteenth-Century Studies
Juliet McMaster, Series Edi1or
U11ivtrsity of Alberta
Consulting Editors
Carol Christ
University of California
at Berkeley
James R. Kincaid
University ofS 0111hern Califomia
Julian Mark els
Ohio State University
G. B. Tennyson
University of California
a, Los A11geles
Studies in Speculative Fiction
Robert Scholes, Series Editor
Brown University
The Witch and the Goddess
in the Stories of Isak Dinesen
A Feminist Reading
by
Sara Stambaugh
•
·M·I
U
Research
Press
Ann Arbor / Lonoon
Copyright © 1988
Sara Stambaugh
All rights reserved
Produced and distributed by
UMI Research Press
an imprint of
University Microfilms Inc.
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48 I0 6
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Stambaugh, Sara, 1936-
The witch and the goddess.. in the stories of Isak Dinesen : a
feminist reading / by Sara Stambaugh.
p. cm.-(Challenging the literary canon)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-8357-I 884-0 (alk. paper)
I. Dinesen, Isak, 1885-1962-Criticism and interpreration.
2. Women in literature. 3. Feminism in literature. I. Title.
II. Series.
PT8175.B545Z858 1988 839.8'1372-<lc.-19 88-5393
CIP
British Library CIP data is available.
Contents
Preface v11
List of Abbreviations 1x
Introduction 1
Entrapment 5
2 Patriarchy and Subversion 19
•
3 Bayaderes and Witches 35
4 The Apotheosis of Woman 59
5 Misogyny 83
Conclusion 109
Notes 113
Bibliography 123
Index 129