‘Your body is a battleground.’ (Barbara Kruger) Discuss the representation of the gendered body in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar and Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping. (Extract)

Sensitive content: violence, suicide

by Elodie Adey

This extract is from an essay I wrote for my Writing Culture and Society module. It is concerning the female position in literature with a focus on abjection and transcendence.

Elodie Adey is a former GoldDust Chronicle Editor and English graduate of 2022. She can now be found at the monthly Safeword poetry night in Amersham Arms. Come down if you fancy an open mic slot!

She can be found on Instagram at @elodie_adey and @safewordpoetry.

from the Editor

This was so interesting and insightful. I especially liked the focus on generational gender expectations, and the censorship/sanitation of womens bodies over the years (surpise, we vomit).

Shayda Soleiman