Artist and Attic
Author: Hsin Ying Chi
Publisher: University Press of America
Published: 1999
Total Pages: 188
ISBN-13: 9780761812890
DOWNLOAD EBOOKArtists and Attic sees the relationship between architecture and literature as a concrete reflection of nineteenth century ideology creating an iconic picture of women's position in society and literature during that period. In the Victorian house, the attic is hidden and neglected, yet to a woman artist, it is a space of her own to produce a text of her own. The author presents the neglected attic as related to the neglected woman and the limited space symbolizes the confinement of woman and the woman writer, yet obtaining this space of her own becomes the central concern to women and women writers. This book explores the function of the attic in nineteenth century British and American women's writing, as it is given meaning and life by the writers. To many of the women, the attic created a paradoxical image of their seclusion, but also of their own poetic space for freedom in creation. Many of the writers see the attic as a retreat to escape from patriarchal oppression and a place to seek social identity.