In Her Own Words: The Semantics of Female Authorship in Ancient Greece, From Sappho to Nossis

Abstract

What we call things is important—it reveals what we think about the world. What we call ourselves, however, is even more important. It reveals ideas and assumptions about identity, gender, community. It helps us to see where we fit in in society; what we understand our purpose, our role to be; the kinds of activities we undertake. In a history where women have been largely barred from higher-paying, traditionally male occupations, the way in which women in particular use terminology to lay claim to skills and expertise in counterpoint to a generally male-dominant culture speaks volumes about the ways in which women see themselves and their relationship to their work. As Erica Jong puts it in her feminist essay,The Artist as Housewife, ‘naming is a form of self-creation’.

“The Harem Within”: The Complexity of Female Identity in Elif Shafak’s Black Milk

“…Authorship was mainly viewed as male-dominated practice and the relationship between authorship and gender is also a significant issue to mention. Since gender is a socially constructed concept, the same could work for authorship, so "authorship and gender are thus not only both performative acts in and of themselves: their performativity together constructs each other" 30 . Many women writers talk about their books as if they were their children, because in many cases the energy that is put in creating life (fictional or not) can be analogous with the act of having a child, with both making women feel vulnerable.…”

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“…-Lanser (1992), 11; see alsoHauser (2016), 18f. 22 -This view, still current in scholarship, stems from Hélène Cixous' work on écriture fémi-…”

“…Others emphasize the connection of the vates to the divine status of divus Augustus, implying a parallel for the channel of communication from gods to mortals via a prophet and the dissemination of Augustus' message to the people through the poets 14 . Still others see it as a by-word for the aesthetics and 8 -See Hauser (2016), 2. 9 -Varro Ling.…”