At this point in the ongoing process of women’s emancipation, we would assume that women should not have a problem with authenticity and authority as writers anymore. However, the contrary is observed by organizations like VIDA: Women in Literary Arts that track representation of women in contemporary literary writing and their “unreliable“ critique as they are still primarily associated with fiction, written and read predominantly by women. But is it only women that face problems concerning their gendered voice when it comes to sales as it appears that now it is the market that determines a writer’s worth rather than their literary talent?
In 2014, the book review site Goodreads carried out an investigation which revealed that readers tend to prefer their printed evening entertainment written by their own gender. If we consider the fact that roughly half of the population are female and, consequently, the other half male, we should lean back in our armchairs and relax because there should be same number of writers and readers of both genders - if there was not the fact of an enormous majority of women reading fiction - preferably by women. But do not be fooled: Only because an author’s name on your new book seems to indicate it’s written by a woman, this does not necessarily mean we are dealing with a female writer.
There are several examples of male (and female) writers that use gender-neutral pseudonyms or even a name of the other gender in order to reach higher sales numbers -so we can say that gender certainly matters. It is very likely that a male writer’s female protagonist’s voice might be not taken as seriously as if the same character would have been created by a woman.
It is argued, whether authors like JK Rowling and EL James might have chosen their gender-neutral initials on their book spines hoping to reach as well boys and young men with their manly Harrys or Christians - or not. Of course, it is only speculation whether their bestsellers would have been more or less successful if it listed Joanne Kathleen Rowling or Erika Mitchell as the authors. We can also simultaneously ask if EL James seriously thought that Mr Grey’s “soft grey eyes“ would have attracted more men by only using her name’s initials. Moreover, after the tremendous success of The Harry Potter mega-series JK Rowling started using a male pseudonym for the “after-Potter-works“.
As we can see, there is much to be discussed about authorship and sales figures through the lens of gender. Sean Thomas aka Tom Knox aka SK Tremayne is quoted as saying “Does it help to be identified as a woman, or to have no gender at all? […] And given that every ‘debut’ novelist wants to give themselves every possible chance, why take the modest risk that using a male name might bring? Why not just use initials? Get rid of gender altogether?”
Will "getting rid of gender" solve any of the problems surrounding gendered readings of literary texts?
Do we read the author or the story?
Is there a problem in women only accepting female writers narrating female voices?
For further reading:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jul/31/male-writers-hide-gender-sell-more-books
http://www.vidaweb.org/about-vida/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/warren-adler/why-do-women-read-more-no_b_5830852.html
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/nov/25/readers-prefer-authors-own-sex-goodreads-survey
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen