The Representation Of Women: In A Mans World, Not Fair
The Representation Of Women; In A Mans World; Not Fair.
The history of Australian literature is extremely masculine. Written by men, about men, for men, a most ‘typically Australian outlook.’ In fact Norman Mackenzie goes as far to say that ‘Australia is more “a man’s country” than other industrial democracies’ (Wilde 271). However, women are represented within this masculine dominated literature, (Wilde 271). Nevertheless, this was a masculine world, with very few women with differing roles in society, to be represented in literature. Therefore, the ratio of men to women in early Australian literature is responding to this ratio.
The female protagonists in The Female Transport, written by an anonymous author, The Drovers Wife by Hennery Lawson, and Journal by Annie Baxter, are three different representations of women in early Australian literature, in three different genera. Each representation is different, yet they are all clear representation of womanhood in early Australia. So are …show more content…
This short story represents the conflicts of an Australian woman; who is married to a drover, a job that requires him to be absent from his family for months on end. Via Lawson is not giving this woman a name, only known as the male’s wife, and a mother to her children, with no name for herself, created a character that is stereotypical for any Drovers wife.
Lawson represents this woman as a mother with a ‘gaunt, sun-browned bushwoman,’ with a ‘worn-out breast,’ (Lawson). This woman is obviously an educated woman, who reads the Young Ladies' Journal. (Lawson) Lawson goes on to suggest that this woman is the man of the house, who does everything around the house, she as well as doing everything that a husband would normally do. She would fight bushfires, ‘a mad bullock’ handle a gun and ward of
The history of Australian literature is extremely masculine. Written by men, about men, for men, a most ‘typically Australian outlook.’ In fact Norman Mackenzie goes as far to say that ‘Australia is more “a man’s country” than other industrial democracies’ (Wilde 271). However, women are represented within this masculine dominated literature, (Wilde 271). Nevertheless, this was a masculine world, with very few women with differing roles in society, to be represented in literature. Therefore, the ratio of men to women in early Australian literature is responding to this ratio.
The female protagonists in The Female Transport, written by an anonymous author, The Drovers Wife by Hennery Lawson, and Journal by Annie Baxter, are three different representations of women in early Australian literature, in three different genera. Each representation is different, yet they are all clear representation of womanhood in early Australia. So are …show more content…
This short story represents the conflicts of an Australian woman; who is married to a drover, a job that requires him to be absent from his family for months on end. Via Lawson is not giving this woman a name, only known as the male’s wife, and a mother to her children, with no name for herself, created a character that is stereotypical for any Drovers wife.
Lawson represents this woman as a mother with a ‘gaunt, sun-browned bushwoman,’ with a ‘worn-out breast,’ (Lawson). This woman is obviously an educated woman, who reads the Young Ladies' Journal. (Lawson) Lawson goes on to suggest that this woman is the man of the house, who does everything around the house, she as well as doing everything that a husband would normally do. She would fight bushfires, ‘a mad bullock’ handle a gun and ward of