Topic: I am writing about the representations of female and male characters in Douglas Coupland’s Microserfs, Shampoo planet, and Life after God, and Nick Hornby’s High fidelity and About a boy from a feminist perspective.
Problem/issue: I want to know whether/how these works reflect the ideals of feminism by portraying complicated and interesting female (and male) characters and not falling into stereotypes, in order to understand and critique the images of women and relationships currently culturally available in literary fiction, and the implications of those images.
Claim: I want to show that while these works do provide some non-stereotypical representations of women, they all fall into some very typical patriarchal stories. Male characters seek redemption and emotional maturity through their relationships with women; female characters who have successful careers have disastrous personal lives; etc. I will also clearly motivate my particular feminist position.
Sources: I will motivate my feminist position using the ideas of Cixous and Kristeva, probably with some analysis by Judith Butler and Judith Fetterley; I will also discuss briefly the lack of feminist work on contemporary male authors. For the literary analysis, my primary sources will be the works themselves. I will use reviews from major newspapers and magazines to show what the mainstream critics have missed about Coupland and Hornby’s work.
Working bibliography
Works analyzed and reviews thereof
Coupland, Douglas (1994). Life after God. New York: Pocket
Books.
Reviews from Baltimore Sun, New York Times, San
Francisco Chronicle, The Independent, Chicago
Sun-Times, Toronto Sun, St. Petersburg Times
Coupland, Douglas (1995). Microserfs. New York: ReganBooks.
Reviews from New York Times, Houston Chronicle,
Detroit News, Boston Globe
Coupland, Douglas (1992). Shampoo Planet. New York: Pocket
Books.
Reviews from San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles
Times, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Washington
Post, Seattle Times
Hornby, Nick (1998). About a boy. New York: Riverhead
Books.
Reviews from New York Times, New York Times,
Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Observer
(London)
Hornby, Nick (1995). High Fidelity. New York: Riverhead
Books.
Reviews from New York Times, Los Angeles Times,
San Francisco Chronicle, Guardian (London),
Observer (London), Details
Supporting sources
Butler, Judith (1990). Gender trouble: feminism and the subersion
of identity. New
York: Routledge.
Butler’s synthesis of the French feminists could be useful.
Fetterley, Judith (1978). The resisting reader: a feminist
approach to American fiction.
Bloomingston, IN: Indiana University Press.
Clarifies the project of feminist criticism, especially why it’s necessary to engage male authors.
Kopkind, Andrew. (1993). Slacking toward Bethlehem. Grand Street, 11, 177-88.
Some of the very little academic work on Coupland.
Lainsbury, G.P. (1996). Generation X and the end of history.
Essays on Canadian
Writing, 58, 229-40.
Also
some of the small amount of academic attention to Coupland.
Moi, Toril (1982). “Feminist criticism.” In Jefferson, Ann, and
Robey, David, Eds. Modern literary theory:
a comparative introduction.
Totowa, NJ: Barnes and Noble Books.
Useful synthesis and critique of Cixous and Kristeva.
Rogers, Katharine M. (1966). The troublesome helpmate:
a history of misogyny in literature. Seattle:
University of Washington Press.
Historical perspective on patriarchal stories and assumption in literature.
York, L.M. (1994). ”Whirling blindfolded in the house of a woman:
gender politics in the poetry and fiction of
Michael Ondaatje.” Essays on Candian Writing:
the Michael Ondaatje issue, 53, 71-91.
A feminist approach to a contemporary male author; useful as model.
Preliminary Outline
I. Introduction
A. Historical perspective on misogyny in literature
B. Typical patriarchal stories
1. Women’s emotions v. man’s
‘rationality’
2. Competition among women
3. Redemption
through the love of a good woman
C. ‘Nice guy’ authors are just as guilty as outright
misogynists
II. Motivation of feminist position
A. Cixous’ binary oppositions
B. Kristeva’s simultaneous subject positions
C. Fetterley’s notion of the “resisting reader”
III. Justification of feminist approach to contemporary literary fiction
A. Necessity of work on male authors
B. Necessity of work on current authors if feminist
criticism is to remain a political enterprise
IV. Justification of Coupland and Hornby as examples
A. Critical success
B. Commercial success
C. Lot of cultural capital
V. Critical responses to the books
A. Coupland
1. Shampoo Planet
2. Microserfs
3. Life After God
B. Hornby
1. High Fidelity
2. About a Boy
VI. Female characters’ emotional problems
A. Coupland
1. Shampoo Planet
a. Gaia and Stephanie’s bonding through bulemia
b. Anna-Louise
1. Post-breakup “power dieting”
2. Post-breakup friendship with Tyler
c. Jasmine’s instability
d. Daisy’s shallowness
e. Stephanie’s selfishness
f. Skye’s “hard-as-nails routine”
2. Microserfs
a. Karla’s eating disorder
b. Susan’s personality shift
c. Dusty
1. Eating disorders
2. Inconsistencies
3. Life after God
a. Cathy
1. Stays in abusive relationship
2. Looking for herself in relationships (male characters look for self
in themselves)
b. Laurie’s intelligence and talent drive her crazy
B. Hornby
1. High fidelity
a. Laura’s leaving her father’s funeral
b. Laura’s taking Rob back despite his infidelity
c. Liz’s feminism presented as instability
2. About a boy
a. Single mother Fiona’s depression and suicide
b. Single mother Angie’s leaving him
VII. Competition among women
A. Coupland
1. Shampoo planet
a. Anna-Louise and Stephanie’s competition for Tyler’s attention (exacerbated
by Skye)
b. Jasmine’s comments about married and divorced women
2. Microserfs
a. Karla and Susan’s initial cattiness toward Dusty
b. Karla and Mrs. Underwood’s uneasiness over Dan
c. Amy’s being held up as an example of what Karla and Susan are “trying
to be”
3. Life after God – Cathy’s
boyfriend flirting with other women
B. Hornby
1. High fidelity
a. Laura and Marie’s tension over Rob’s quasi-infidelity
b. Laura and Caroline’s tension over Rob’s almost infidelity
c. Laura and Rosie’s tension over Rob’s infidelity
2. About a boy
a. Various explanations for the single mother’s divorces
b. Ellie’s antagonistic relationship with her mother
VIII. Male characters’ attempts at redemption through relationships
with women
A. Coupland
1. Shampoo Planet
a. Tyler and Anna-Louise
b. Harmony and Skye
c. Dan and Jasmine
2. Microserfs
a. Dan and Karla
b. Todd and Dusty
c. Michael and Amy
B. Hornby
1. High Fidelity
a. Rob and Laura
b. Rob and Marie
2. About a boy
a. Will and Angie
b. Will and Suzie
c. Marcus trying to set up Will and his mom, Fiona
d. Marcus and Ellie
IX. Notion of ‘post-feminism’
A. Coupland
1. Shampoo Planet
2. Microserfs
B. Hornby – High Fidelity
X. Conclusions
A. Patriarchal stories are still prevalent in literary
fiction
B. Some aspects of the female characters in these
works offer hope
1. Karla, Susan, Dusty,
and Amy’s intellect
2. Anna-Louise’s independence
3. Unnamed female character’s
self-care
4. Suzie’s organizational
skills
5. Laura’s intellect and
competence
6. Marie’s artistic ability
and social skills
C. Still a long way to go for male authors to portray
complicated female characters without lapsing into cliche