SCRIBBLE
Does Literature Change Anything?
By Head Girl Meg Heaney
A
ccording to Michael Mack, literature is “a disruptive force, breaking up our fictions about the world we live in”; it acts as a spotlight, focusing the reader’s attention on certain aspects of society, dispelling myths and ‘breaking up our fictions’ about the world around us. Literature doesn’t ‘change’ anything as much as it ‘catalyses’ such change and as a ‘disruptive force’ within feminist literature, it ‘breaks our fictions about’ women and their capabilities. The feminist voice sought to encourage further social change to improve society’s recognition of women’s strengths, showcasing female protagonists to have traits that they were typically overlooked with having, such as being strong and independent. Being a non-confrontational form of criticism, literature enables readers to digest the messages of feminist novels, instigating a natural realisation for a need of change, so that no defence is appropriated when controversial feminist messages such as Woolf’s – that ‘women are hard on other women, women dislike women’ arise, only acceptance towards what we’re told which, in turn, forces us to seek further social change.
F
or a novelist to have an audience,
their messages within their novels must be relevant and relatable for readers, therefore,
social change must have been occurring before such novels were written and it’s with this in mind that we can understand literature as a catalyst for change, not the former initiator of such change. Therefore, literature doesn’t ‘change’ anything, moreover catalysing further change, hence we can see the impact that the literary catalyst of feminist works have had upon society, as the feminist movement has changed our perceptions of women’s strengths and capabilities as authors showcase female protagonists who make independent decisions, not ruled by highlystrung emotions, capable of thinking and acting rationally; ‘breaking up the fiction’ that women are weak and helpless. Ultimately, enabling the patriarchy to change its opinion on women and the way they were treated. The canon of feminist literature served to force readers to acknowledge the capabilities of female protagonists within novels – be it Jane
Eyre and her own decision to marry Rochester or The Yellow Wallpaper’s depiction of
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