VOICING THE ALTERNATIVE: WOMEN AND THE ESSAY
VOICING THE ALTERNATIVE: WOMEN AND THE ESSAY

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this paper is to discuss modern essay written by women tracing the influence of the past from a theoretical and literary-historical context. As a literary form, the essay has always caused problems. It does not belong to the standard division of genres, which raises the question of “anti-genre” because of its subversivity. The essay becomes a “queer” genre containing elements assimilated from other genres. Being “elite” from the start, both in terms of social class and gender and implying experience, knowledge, wisdom and contemplation, it was not generally addressed to women. How is it that women embraced this form of writing and began to claim the essay as a form of their own? The paper analyses the relationship between gender and genre from a feminist perspective, tracing the importance and influence of Virginia Woolf’s essays on the contemporary essay written by women. In her work, Woolf assimilated tradition and completely new literary procedures. Furthermore, through the issues raised in her personal essays, she established the foundations for studies in women's literature, which are also present in contemporary radical feminist essays.

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