Američka autorica i novinarka Katie Roiphe, najpoznatija po svom djelu iz 1994. "Jutro poslije: Seks, strah i feminizam" (The Morning After: Sex, Fear and Feminism) rekla je: "Da je Karl Ove Knausgaard žena koja strastveno piše bez jasnog i hitnog cilja o detaljima života, recenzije "Moje borbe" ( My Stuggle/Min Kamp) bile bi puno drugačije." Svoju tvrdnju Roiphe pojašnjava rečenicom: "Ono što se u muškog pisca percipira kao hrabrost i inovacija ili književno herojstavo, kod žena bi se čak i od strane liberalnih, prosvijetljenih i književnih krugova, protumačilo kao ekstremna oholost ili gore! "
Karl Ove Knausgaard norveški je autor, poznat po svojih šest autobiografskih romana nazvanih "Moja borba" (My Stuggle/ Min Kamp). Spomenuta djela doživljena su kao golema kontroverza, dijelom zbog naziva koji vuče paralelu s Hitlerovom "Mein Kampf", a dijelom i zbog toga što su mnogi smatrali da Knausgaard ide predaleko u otkrivanju privatnog života svojih prijatelja, bivše žene i obitelji. Unatoč tome, knjige su diljem svijeta dobivale pozitivne kritike, osobito prva dva izdanja koja su prije službenog objavljivanja proglašena fenomenom Norveške književnosti.
Tvrdnja Roiphove ne čudi ako uzmemo u obzir reakcije na debitantski roman Emily Gould "Prijateljstvo" (Friendship). Naime, kada govorimo o ispovjednom tekstu proizašlom iz ruku žene, autobiografsko nas u njemu iritira i ljuti te mu lako pripisujemo pojmove pretenciozno, uzaludno, tašto, usko, izklišeizirano i "žensko", a svi znamo koliko "žensko" ima negativnu konotaciju jer automatski pomišljamo na plačljivu, dramatičnu, infantilnu ženu. I premda je 32- godišnja Gould, bivša urednica portala Gawker, kreatorica veoma čitanih blogova Emily Magazine i Heartbreak Soup te autorica kolekcije osobnih eseja, objasnila kako je jako malo toga u "Prijateljstvu" autobiografsko jer se u istom nalazi previše detalja kojih se srami pa je miješanjem s fikcijom nastojala prikriti pretjerano intimne momente, i dalje je njezina proza dočekana na nož od strane kritike zbog navodno preizraženog ispovjednog tona. No, kako je ova mlada spisateljica prije svega poznata kao blogerica i esejistica koja otvoreno progovara o svojoj intimi, njezin je roman "Prijateljstvo" potaknuo brojne rasprave o ispovjednom pismu, iako ga se ne bi moglo kategorički definirati isključivo kao takvo.Malo smisla imaju i usporedbe s Lenom Dunham i polu-autobiografskom HBO-ovom serijom "Girls" kao i čuđenje nad ispodvjednim tonom općenito, budući da Gould svojim djelom samo osvježava formu koja se razvila u 50-ima i 60-ima, a kojom su se služile pjesnikinje kao što su Anne Sexton i Sylvia Plath te spisateljice poput Erice Jong i Doris Lessing.
Spomenute američke spisateljice sa sredine dvadesetog stoljeća već onomad su otvoreno pisale o vrlo privatnim iskustvima – seksu, depresiji, majčinstvu i obiteljskom životu, temama koje su do tad bile nedovoljno istražene u američkoj literaturi.Čak su i one imale preteče svog izražaja, čitavu tradiciju raznih oblika ženske literature kao što su pisma, dnevnici, memoari... Ovim su se književnim formama unutar zatvorenih vrata samostana vješto služile žene poput Sor Juane Inés de la Cruz, Hildegard von Bingen i Mechthild od Magdeburga. Tu su i one koje su na drugačiji način odlučile ne sudjelovati u obiteljskom životu, tradiocionalno predviđenom za ženu te se kao takve nikada nisu udavale, već su se posvetile svom radu, a to su primjerice Christina Rossetti, Jane Austen, sestre Bronte i Emily Dickinson.
Pritom smo zaboravili da se pisanje u ispovjednoj formi jednom smatralo jasnim političkim činom. Ispovjedno pisanje razvilo se dijelom i iz feminističkih pokreta u 60-ima i 70- ima. Kroz ove pokrete podizala se svijest o ženi i ženskom. Žene su počele pisati za druge žene o svojim iskustvima, plivajući vješto u izrazito osobnim i nekonvencionalnim književnim formama. Njihov cilj bio je stvoriti zajednicu koja bi destigmatizirala tradicionalne izvore srama kao što su seks, menstruacija, abortus...
Danas pojam "ispovjedno" vrlo često olako koristimo, i premda tu i tamo raspravljamo o književnim zaslugama ispovjednog teksta, rijetko se zamislimo nad tim što taj pojam zaista znači, kako ga koristimo i u kojem pogledu nas on zapravo ograničava. Kako je profesorica Lori Saint-Martin objasnila: "Domena osobnog i seksualnog uvijek je smatrana književnim kada govorimo o muškarcima (Saint Augustine, Rousseau, Michel Leiris, Henry Miller) i ispodvjednim kada govorimo o ženama (Colette, Erica Jong, Anaïs Nin)."
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Why do we hate the confessional in female writing? - part 1
American author and journalist Katie Roiphe, best known for her work from 1994. "The Morning After: Sex, Fear and Feminism" said: "If Karl Ove Knausgaard was a woman passionately writing without clear and urgent aim about the details of life, reviews of "My struggle" (Min Kamp) would have been much different." Her claims Roiphe explains with the sentence: "What is in the male writer perceived as courage and innovation or literary heroism, would in a women writer be interpreted as extreme arrogance or worse even by the liberal, enlightened and within literary circles.
Karl Ove Knausgaard is the Norwegian author, famous for his six autobiographical novels called "My Stuggle" (Min Kamp). These works experienced a huge controversy, partly because of the name which draws a parallel with Hitler's "Mein Kampf", and partly because many thought that Knausgaard went too far in revealing private lives of his friends, ex-wife and family. Nevertheless, the book achieved almost global positive reviews, especially the first two editions, and even before its final publication was voted one of the biggest literary phenomenon in Norway ever.
Roiphe's claim is not surprising if we take into account reactions on Emily Gould's debut novel "Friendship". In fact, when we talk about confessional text that emerged from woman's hand, the autobiographical in it irritates us and makes us angry, and we readily ascribe terms like pretentious, vain, narrow, cliche and "womanly" to it, and we all know "womanly" has a negative connotation because we automatically think of the whiny, dramatic, infantile woman. And although 32-year-old Gould, former editor of the portal Gawker, the author of two widely read blogs Emily Magazine and Heartbreak Soup and the author of a collection of personal essays, explained that very little in "Friendship" is autobiographical because there is too much detail which is shameful, by mixing it with fiction she tried to cover up overly intimate moments, she was still brought under the knife in front of the critics due to the exceptional confessional notes. Because Gould's history as a blogger and essayist who says everything about her intimate life, her work prompted a debate on the confessional, although the novel "Friendship" can not be classified as confessional. Little sense also has the comparison to Lena Dunham's semi-autobiographical HBO's series "Girls" and the amazement with the confessional tone overall, since Gould's work only refreshes the form that was developed in the 50s' and 60s', and which was used by poets such as Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath and writers such as Erica Jong and Doris Lessing.
These women more then openly wrote about very private experiences - sex, depression, motherhood and family life, themes which up to that time were poorly studied in American literature. Even they had their precursors, the whole tradition of various forms of women's literature such as letters, diaries, memories ... All these are forms which were written within the closed doors of the monastery and which served women like Sor Juan Inés de la Cruz, Hildegard von Bingen and Mechthild of Magdeburg. There are also those who otherwise decided not to participate in family life, traditionally meant for the woman and as such have never been married, but have dedicated themselves to their work, such are for example, Christina Rossetti, Jane Austen, Bronte sisters and Emily Dickinson.
We also forgot that writing in confessional form was once seen a clear political act. Confessional writing has also evolved partly from feminist movements in the 60s and the 70s. Through these movements awareness was raised about women and women's. Women began to write for other women about their experiences, floating artfully in superpersonal and unconventional literary forms. Their goal was to create a community that would destigmatize traditional sources of shame, such as sex, menstruation, abortion ...
Today, the term "confessional" is used so easily and often, and although here and there we discuss the literary merits of confessional text, rarely we ponder upon what that term really means, how we use it and in which way does it actually restricts us. As Professor Lori Saint-Martin explained: "The domain of personal and sexual was always considered literary when we talk about men (Saint Augustine, Rousseau, Michel Leiris, Henry Miller) and confessional when we talk about women (Colette, Erica Jong, Anais Nin)
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