My discussion is based on the excerpt from Nina Baym’s Melodramas of Beset Manhood: How Theories of American Fiction Exclude Women Authors. Nina baym has states in the beginning of the writing that “This paper is about American literary criticism rather than American literature”. I am curious why she starts her argument saying that. What she means by criticism? We always read literature through the prospective of the theories of the literature. So we understand and believe the way theory tells us. The theories are controlling our literature and excluding women authors from the cannon. We believe the way story tells us about character rather thinking in-depth in our own.
The women authors were not cited on their writing. I believe writing has nothing to do with male and female because they both can be good writers. By the way, in the middle of nineteenth century the female authors were exist but why they were not included on the book?
I believe the critics play the gender role of criticism. They think women cannot be the excellent writer. They look at women in their literary traditional way. Their social condition stops them from being novelist. The women don’t have enough resources to be a good writer. Women should do only house work and they should not have authority as an author. Literary criticism is actually banding female authors. Why do you think it is happening? The females are part of their family. So why do the critics don’t want to include female names on their writing?