From the Archives: Annie Proulx and Literary Landscapes
I can't help wondering how Annie Proulx feels about having the distinction of bookending the subtitle of A Jury of Her Peers: American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx. She does not seem the kind of writer who yearns to be cast in the role of preeminent representative of American women writer's. I keep circling the idea that Showalter strikes the wrong note by ending her study with Proulx, a writer who has chosen to address primarily male characters and themes in her work. On one hand, this does show that women have come a long way, baby: "We can write about any damn thing we want!" Then again, one of the marvelous moments in reading A Jury of Her Peers is realizing that, really, that's what we've been doing all along.
The Christmas 2000 edition of The New Yorker has a wonderful essay by Proulx, "Big Skies, Empty Places," where she talks about why she writes about what men. Perhaps Showlater should've included this in her section about Proulx. It certainly would've added a bit more spice to an otherwise rather anemic ending:
"When people ask me why women are rarely the major protagonists in my stories and novels, I try to explain absent presence. I am interested in the rural world, and in that world it is men and men's work, whether logging or fishing or running cattle or growing soybeans, that dominate the culture and the history of the region. Yes, women do drive tractors, load steers, haul nets, run ranches, but more commonly theirs is an absent presence in rural events."