Beeler, Karin  E.

English

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Book Reviews Libby Scheier, Sarah Sheard, and Eleanor Wachtel, eds. Language in Her Eye: Views on Writing and Gender by Canadian Women Writing in English. Toronto: Coach House P, 1990. pp. 308. $18.95. Language in Her Eye, a col lection of forty-four contributions by con-temporary Canadian women, brings together a range of topics, voices, and styles. Because of the sheer n u m b e r of offerings, it is impossible to do justice to all o f the essays, creative works, a n d other forms of writing inc luded i n this book. T h e numerous contributions address questions as varied as male/female relationships, lesbian identity, race and eth-nicity, class, language, sexuality i n literature, and cultural appropria-t ion. Feminism is also discussed as a concept synonymous with support, solidarity, l iberat ion, contradiction, anxiety, and alienation. Some of the key issues addressed i n this anthology—gender, race, class, language, and w r i t i n g — a r e considered by H i m a n i Bannerji in her story/essay, "The S o u n d Barrier: Translating Ourselves i n Lan-guage and Experience." Bannerji eloquently describes the difficulty faced by a Bengali writer writ ing i n Engl ish , an alien language. H e r observations provide Western readers with valuable insight into the p h e n o m e n a of race, "otherization," class, gender, and motherhood. She also focusses o n the postcolonial experience of language, which in her case is represented by the struggle between Bengal i a n d Engl ish. H e r acute sense of dislocation is further reflected i n her decision to combine a creative fragment or story with critical commentary. L i k e Bannerji 's piece, D i o n n e Brand's "Bread O u t of Stone" also deals with race a n d gender, but her contr ibut ion focuses on the multi-ple conflicts entailed i n be ing a black, feminist, lesbian writer: "Even i n a Black dream, where I, too, am a dreamer, a lesbian is suspect; a woman is suspect even to other women, especially i f she dreams of women" (48). In her text, she describes her col lection of oral histories by older Black women i n Ontar io and the process of making a film about women. This subject matter is presented i n the present tense, which allows the author to create a sense of immediacy that blurs the distinc-tions between Brand's black foremothers a n d her own "dangerous smile" (52), memory a n d life, oral history and writing. Other issues covered i n Language in Her Eye include the influence 126 B O O K R E V I E W S offeminist th inking o n the writing o f indiv idual authors, the question of gender discrimination or lack thereof, the backlash against feminism, (for example, the Montreal massacre), the exclusion of women from the "Great Tradi t ion" or literary canon, as well as the fusion of the personal and the polit ical i n theorizing feminist reading and writing. A number of writers l ike Margaret Atwood, Janette Turner Hospita l , and Paulette Jiles discuss their disenchantment with feminism and the alien-ating ideas presented by some academic circles; Kristjana Gunnars and Phyllis Webb, for example, also fear the encroachment of dogma o n their art. C a r o l Shields seeks to dismantle the divisiveness inherent i n the opposit ion of distinct male and female worlds, and argues o n behalf of the h u m a n . G a i l Scott engages i n narrative play to undermine the linearity of male writing, reinventing the concept o f the tragic character for her heroine figure. L ibby Scheier, editor and contributor, envisions a k i n d of writing that wil l maintain the twin concerns o f the pol i t ical a n d the mystifying. Contr ibutions by Cameron, G o d a r d , and H u t c h e o n wi l l undoubtedly be of particular interest to women i n academe. In her essay o n biography, for example, Elspeth C a m e r o n argues that a femi-nist biography does not require a female subject. Godard's two-column work on the personal and the polit ical deals with positionality i n writing and reading, and advances the discourse of poststructuralism. L i n d a H u t c h e o n also presents herself as a feminist postructuralist critic, but applies this theoretical approach to the practice of teaching and to the realization that meaning and truth, l ike gender, are not fixed. Accord-ing to H u t c h e o n , "gender is less biological than socially produced" ( 150). This question of essentialism is further examined by Janice Kulyk Keefer, whose position is more anti-essentialist i n her push for androgy-nous language which can embrace both difference and similarities. Perhaps one of the most controversial issues debated by many of the women i n Language in Her Eye is the question of cultural appropriat ion in literature or speaking i n the voice of the other. This debate is summarized by Marlene Nourbese P h i l i p who states that it was "sparked by the rejection of three short stories by the Women's Press for an anthology o f short fiction, Imagining Women, on the grounds that the writers i n question, all white, had used the voice of and characters f rom cultures and races other than their own" (209). Some writers l ike Margaret Hol l ingsworth ("Nobody owns a myth, a culture, a story," 143) and A n n e C a m e r o n appear to support the freedom of the imagination and dismiss any suggestion that they should avoid certain topics. Cam-eron does not believe that "any particular ' form' of story structure belongs to any particular b u n c h of people regardless of co lour" (70) and questions the very definit ion o f the term "indigenous." It is worth noting, however, that Cameron's rejection of l imitations imposed o n a writer's choice of subject and form does not appear to extend to her conception of class. T h e o p e n i n g pages of her essay reveal her resent-ment towards middle-class women who talk about poverty. B O O K R E V I E W S 127 Native women writers, Lee Maracle and Lenore Keeshig-Tobias, vehe-mently oppose the appropriat ion of another culture, particularly the presentation or use of native culture by non-native writers. T h e i r goal is to reclaim the place of the native i n literature. A r i t h a van H e r k supports the latter viewpoint a n d calls for an awareness of when "to back off'; she i n turn refuses to "appropriate difference to aggrandize either [her] own fiction or [her] own feminism" (275). W h i l e certain writers either c o n d e m n or dismiss the appropriat ion issue, others l ike Daphne Mar-latt argue more diplomatically for a recognit ion of difference and a recognit ion of shared g r o u n d (192). Claire Harris 's response i n the form o f a creative dialogue interspersed with Caribbean dialect pro-vides an atypical humourous edge to the issues of multículturalism, assimilation, and racial relations. Clearly, the difficult choices many writers make between gender solidarity, literary creativity, and cultural specificity continue to affect feminist and ethnic studies. A l t h o u g h feminist readers wil l respond i n a variety of ways to many of the points expressed i n Language in Her Eye, feminists wil l undoubtedly agree that some of E d i t h Iglauer's statements do a disservice to femi-nism and to women's writ ing i n general. For example, Iglauer's view that the male world is synonymous with "a sharper way of t h i n k i n g — a more direct approach" (155) undermines the gains women have made i n overcoming feelings o f inferior intellectual ability. In her opening remarks, she suggests that she may not be a feminist because she enjoys being with m e n and likes working with them. This rather simplistic l ink between feminism and a hatred of m e n merely reinforces a stereotypi-cal image of feminism. A n o t h e r regrettable feature of the anthology is the alphabetical arrangement of contributions f rom Atwood to Wein-zweig. W h i l e some individual pieces do cover a variety of topics and c o u l d theoretically fit into a number of categories, an editorial decision to organize the content by topic would have enhanced the pedagogical value o f the text. Complementary or confl ict ing views between individ-ual contributions c o u l d then have been identif ied more easily by in-structors a n d students. Scholars interested i n a more engaged debate with feminist theory wil l have to look elsewhere. Aside f rom Barbara Godard's and Janice Kulyk Reefer's pieces, the majority o f the works have a decidedly confessional tone. Despite the obvious shortage of theoretical discourse or appl ied critical analysis i n Language in Her Eye, the editors have inc luded multi-ple feminine a n d feminist voices, thereby re inforcing the prominence of diversity i n Canadian writ ing by women. A l t h o u g h many of the views i n this anthology may not intersect, they do provide a keen sense of some important issues facing Canadian writers, critics, and readers today. KARIN E. B E E L E R 

Libby Scheier, Sarah Sheard, and Eleanor Wachtel, eds.
Language in Her Eye: Views on Writing and Gender by Canadian
Women Writing in English

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Libby Scheier, Sarah Sheard, and Eleanor Wachtel, eds. Language in Her Eye: Views on Writing and Gender by Canadian Women Writing in English

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