(no subject)
Jun. 2nd, 2010 06:02 pmAm I the only one who sees The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman as primarily a horror story instead of feminist fiction?
I always found it a spooky tale and it could be interpreted in many ways. Not only is it autobiographical, it's a peek into history, how minorities and those with mental illness were treated, how repression would kill rather than help, and all those bulbous eyes in the wallpaper and the unreliable narrator reminds me of Tell-Tale Heart. Yes, there's feminism, but pidgeon-holing The Yellow Wallpaper as soley feminist literature about the evils of ZOMG PATRIARCHAL OPPRESSHUN!!11! is only reducing such a multi-faceted and disturbing story into something generic and shallow. :/ Your faceless "just like every other piece of feminist literature" thing, which I don't believe Yellow Wallpaper is at all.
Go figure, this will make me very unpopular with the ladies in literary circles. :/ Can't I enjoy my psychological horror and insanity without people screaming FEMINISM FEMINISM in my face? That or "ZOMG UR MISSING DA POINT!!11!" speeches.
This is why I rarely ever bring up this subject. It just makes me want to throw my hands up and UGGGHHH.