Teresa's Reviews > Silences

We are only beginning to understand the process of discouragings, of silencings; of the making of enabled and of enablers. (from the chapter titled “Wives, Mothers, Enablers”)

Olsen developed this seminal work from a speech she gave in the early 60s on the topic of writers, or would-be writers, silenced by various societal issues. Her focus is on women writers, but she expands the topic to include men writers as illustrious as Thomas Hardy. Following the two essays based on talks she gave, the latter on women writers in “our century,” is an essay on Rebecca Harding Davis, a 19th-century writer who eventually became more known for being the mother of Richard Harding Davis, which in a nutshell illustrates at least one of Olsen’s points.

The second part of the work consists of quotes from writers on the topic of artistic silencing that fit with each subhead. Olsen’s explanatory prose from here on out is fragmented, seeming to fit with the theme of other obligations getting in the way of a writer’s work.

Part three ends with a lengthy passage from Rebecca Harding Davis’ Life in the Iron Mills related to the topic of submerged art; excerpts from Baudelaire’s My Heart Laid Bare; and reading lists Olsen started in the early 70s of forgotten writers she’s championed, and taught at Amherst. The list includes names we are familiar with now but whose writings were out of print at the time, writers such as Zora Neale Hurston, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Margaret Fuller, and Dorothy West. Olsen was instrumental in getting these and many more writers back in print.

This book was and is a great resource for choosing material for reading and studying, and for using as a jumping-off place for scholars who want to research a particular silenced author. Just don’t use an e-copy, at least not the one I borrowed from Hoopla. It’s horribly formatted. Much of the time it was difficult to figure out if the quotes in part two were by Olsen or by the writer she was quoting. Even worse, it was impossible to access the notes at the end of the chapters while reading the chapter, and then almost impossible to go back and figure out which asterisk(s) went with which line. I read a free copy but if you’re spending money on this, especially if you want it for reference, buy a book made of paper.