One of the most famous authors of the nineteenth century wrote under the pseudonym A.M. Barnard. This author, now known as Louisa May Alcott, wrote many novels but probably the the novel Little Women is the most well known. This book which I'm sure the majority of you have heard of tells the story of four girls and their family. Jo, one of the girls in the family is very independent and wants to find success in writing but her plans change when she gets married. This ending makes me wonder if Alcott wrote this ending to show how wrong it was for a woman to give up her dreams because she was getting married, or if she ended it like this because she felt that ending it any other way would be too controversial?
Alcott discussed many topics that would be thought controversial at the time though. She covered issues of divorce, the main character was usually a heroine not hero, and female independence. So was Alcott truly a feminist or was she just writing good stories?
http://www.enotes.com/feminism-literature/alcott-louisa-may
A well known woman who more recently wrote under a pseudonym is J.K. Rowling. Instead of using her actual name Joanne she went with her initials that purposefully made her gender ambiguous. Was this so that guys would still want to read her book? Or were there other reasons for her use of initials?
For whatever reason, it shows us that woman even today still take pseudonyms.
I guess I'm not the only one intrigued by pseudonyms...
http://nuggetoftruth.wordpress.com/2008/08/05/on-pseudonyms/
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2 comments:
Louisa May Alcott may have ended Little Women the way she did because she was writing from experience and that was the pattern she saw happening in many women's lives in those days. Or maybe she faced a restrictive marriage too. I don't know anything about Louisa May Alcott, but it'd be interesting to look into.
Pseudonym’s are certainly interesting. I know even today, my mother who is a physical therapist, still signs all of her work related papers with the initial of her first name and her full last name. She may add the initial of her middle name too... I’m not sure. She does this because it does give her privacy and anonymity. It’s also very sloppy; I guess that adds to the obscurity. She could be a Jocelyn, Jack, Janice, John, James or even a Julie... Nobody would know! Mainly, though she does it so she isn’t judged by her sex for whatever reason, especially working in such a stratified workplace as a hospital. It does seem silly that even today some women do still do this; you’d think we’d be past this already. At least pick a fun name if you must. Great post Maria!
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