Feminism in Literature/ George Sand

France, sometime in the 19th Century, a beautiful woman was always seen walking through the streets of Paris, dressed in men's clothes, her hair short like men, smoking and having access to places where women at that time were not allowed to go. She was a famous writer whose relations with great French figures as well as another homosexual relation with an actress gave the aristocratic society of Paris a full meal for gossip that satisfied their appetites for scandals. That was the Baroness Aurore Dudevant, known in literature as George Sand, the most famous French female writer of the 19th Century. One of the early figures of Feminism, George Sand's marriage to the Baron Dudevant and her two children Maurice and Solange did not prevent her from boldly leaving her husband and pursuing her flamboyant life that she wanted. In an attempt to mock the male dominated society, she enjoyed dressing and behaving like men in public. She even had her own male pseudonym, she got the last name from the novelist Jules Sandeau with whom she was in an intimate relationship that did not last long but brought to literature her first novel Rose et Blanche which they wrote together and had it published in 1831. She continued writing till her death in 1876 leaving 35 novels, 8 plays and 5 other works of literature, history and biography. Her famous novel, Indiana, tells the story of an unhappy wife who struggles to free herself from the imprisonment of marriage where she called it a form of slavery. Many of her novels, such as Valentine and Lélia, shocked the readers at that time with their frank exploration of women's sexual feelings and their passionate call for women's freedom to find emotional satisfaction. In spite of being a wonderful writer, many critics believe that her masterpiece is her 900 pages autobiography and of course she is most famous for her personality and lifestyle as well. George had several love affairs with famous men in Paris, including Jules Sandeau, Alfred de Musset, Frédéric Chopin, and others. She was friends with Eugène Delacroix, Franz Liszt and of course, most famously, with Chopin where they had a complicated relationship, going from friends, to lovers, to finally ending up in something more like a mother-son relationship which was one of the most intriguing and unlikely in history. Her books had a strong effect on literary figures like Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Dostoevsky, Proust and others. The Great Russian writer, Turgenev described her saying "What a brave man she was, and what a good woman." And she was described by de Musset as "the most womanly woman". Baudelaire, on the other hand was against her to the point of insulting her in public saying "She is stupid, heavy and garrulous. Her ideas on morals have the same depth of judgment and delicacy of feeling as those of janitresses and kept women... The fact that there are men who could become enamored of this slut is indeed a proof of the abasement of the men of this generation." That was George Sand, a rebellious, cross-dressing, cigar-smoking, scandalously-acting woman writer who lived at a time that was certainly much more of a man's world, a woman who was not afraid to be herself come what may. Finally I end with her very famous quote "There is only one happiness in life, is to love and be loved."

Feminism in Literature/ Sappho

Although Historians and Critics date the first wave of the Feminism movement to the end of the nineteenth century, Feminist writing started thousands of years before that and hundreds of years BC. The oldest of such writings belong to the great Greek female poet and writer, Sappho. Sappho was born in the island of Lesbos in ancient Greece sometime between 630 and 612 BC. Not much is known or confirmed about her life but she is believed to be an aristocrat leading a good life that made her free to experience and write. She also had her own political activities that sent her to exile in Sicily. Coming from Greece, the land of lyrics, Sappho had her own innovative style and she is believed to have composed the music to be accompanying her poetry while performed on theatre. Her style is very melodic and most of her works deal with love, loss, separation and other romantic issues and even some of her works were homoerotic. This brings us to a very controversial part of Sappho's life and works which is female homosexuality. Sappho's works are famous for their homosexual content and most of her poems are love poems from her to many other females. The word Lesbian that is still used to describe female homosexuals is actually derived from Lesbos, the island where she used to live, but this was not a problem at her time as she was living in the ancient Greek society that honored homosexuality among men and women. Regardless the content, Sappho is considered one of the most famous female poets and although she was born over 2000 years ago, her works are still read and studied. Finally, I leave you with one of her works: I have not had one word from her Frankly I wish I were dead When she left, she wept a great deal; she said to me, "This parting must be endured, Sappho. I go unwillingly." I said, "Go, and be happy but remember (you know well) whom you leave shackled by love "If you forget me, think of our gifts to Aphrodite and all the loveliness that we shared "all the violet tiaras, braided rosebuds, dill and crocus twined around your young neck "myrrh poured on your head and on soft mats girls with all that they most wished for beside them "while no voices chanted choruses without ours, no woodlot bloomed in spring without song..."