Ridiculous

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I found out only recently, and with great irritation, that the translator of the standard English version of the epic of Gilgamesh, N.K.Sandars, was called Nancy and was a woman. I don't know why she would conceal her name in this way, or whether it had anything to do with her sex, but I could not help thinking about the way that Joanne Kathleen Rowling's publishers shortened her name to JK to prevent readers realizing that this author of adventurous stories about two boys and a girl was a woman herself. And then there is the strange phenomenon of the illustrious (if bitchy) British writer universally known as A.S.Byatt. I am not often heard to take this kind of positions, but I find this simply ridiculous. That in this day and age, the identity of a woman should be disguised in order to enter her into the artform practiced by Deborah the prophetess, by Sappho and the other Earthly Muses, by the Virgin Mary (the Magnificat), St.Hildegard of Bingen, Christine de Pisan, Teresa of Cartagena, Vittoria Colonna, St.Teresa of Avila, Madame de Lafayette, Madame de Sevigne', Jane Austen, Annette von Droste, the Bronte sisters, Louisa May Alcott, Mrs.Gaskell, and so on and so forth and so following, is ridiculous... sorry to repeat myself, but what other word is fitting? Or rather, it should be ridiculous, were it not that nobody can find the force to laugh. Have they ever gone away, the days of George Eliot, George Sand, and Currer Bell?

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Unfortunately, this is not ridiculous; there is still a fair amount of prejudice against female authors--and most particularly female critics and translators--in the literary world. This goes double in the academic world where classics are concerned. Sad but true. Still, things are improving. Certainly there are far more women involved in such pursuits than there used to be, and openly.

Female scholars

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Stupidity is everlasting, I suppose. And prejudice is, in my view, inevitable. I work, myself, in a fairly male-dominated field of research, for some reason; but I look further out and I see female Titans such as Marilyn Butler (English literary history), Ann Douglas (American ditto), Dorothea Wender (classics), Olga Davidson (Persian classics) - just a quick trawl through my files - then I really think that experience alone ought to silence this sort of nonsense. And literature as art has been open to women since literally the beginning of our civilization: Deborah's poem is the most ancient single item in the Bible, and Sappho belongs to the archaic period of Greek poetry. And then there is the possibility that the Odyssey may have been written by a woman...

[(Anonymous)]

I don't think it's a matter of sexism so much as a matter of how an author name 'looks' on a book's cover. Look at J. R. R. Tolkein, C. S. Lewis or even G. K. Chesterton as examples - the use of an initial conveys more authority in the minds of some readers (or even in the mind of the author themselves).

I could not help thinking about the way that Joanne Kathleen Rowling's publishers shortened her name to JK to prevent readers realizing that this author of adventurous stories about two boys and a girl was a woman herself

I'm interested in knowing where that information came from as I'd thought Rowling had submitted the manuscript to agencies using JK Rowling, although signing the covering letters with her full name.

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I don't remember where I got that, it was in one of several articles about the lady I read. I am sure that it was said, but now you have said this, I cannot be sure that it was true. Male writers shorten their names for different reasons: C.S.Lewis hated his name and called himself Jack - all his friends always spoke of "Jack Lewis" - and Tolkien had, I think, a certain shyness. As for Chesterton, people speak just as easily of Gilbert K.Chesterton; the G.K. refers more to the symbol "GKC" by which he was known - like his friend and adversary "GBS" Shaw - from his earliest days. There was no hiding about it. I doubt that any such factors come in play with Joanne Rowling, Nancy Sandars or Antonia Byatt.

I dare say that my annoyance at this is due in part to the fact that it led me into a sort of unconscious complicity. Without indication of sex, I just naturally assumed that N.K.Sandars was male. I do not think this is a major fault - after all, everyone makes assumptions - but it caught me up with the very sexist nonsense that bothers me so much.

[(Anonymous)]

Ever heard of J.R.R. Tolkien? C.S. Lewis? Using one's initials is not just something women do.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

I'll let this one stand, but people really ought to read previous responses before they post their own. Plus, I fail to understand your hostile tone.

[(Anonymous)]

Not hostile, just generally disbelieving. Sorry about not reading the other comments though.