Female Anger in Literature

[Laoise]

I have just finished Claire Messud's The Woman Upstairs.

It begins 'How angry am I? You don't want to know. Nobody wants to know about that.'.
It finishes 'I am angry enough, at last, to stop being afraid of life, and angry enough -finally, God willing, with my mother's anger also on my shoulders, a great boil of rage like the sun's fire in me - before I die to ****ing well live. Just watch me.'

These are Nora Elridge's first words to the reader and the fuel for this book. When reading I became Nora and I lived through Nora's uncomfortable, private white hot rage. There were no open expressions of violence between humans and Nora was arguably neither victim or aggressor.

I have never read a book like it. Why? It leads me to think about the contrast between kelidescope of human darkness and the acceptable expressions of the human shadow side. Violence, victims, oppressors, tragedy, ill health, poverty, ignorance, there are a myriad of stories of darkness in our literature to help us somehow understand if not accept the human condition. But what about anger and particularly female a anger in a modern context?

Any thoughts? Any recommendations?

Laoise

[TheFifthElement]

Hi Laoise. I read The Woman Upstairs a few months ago and reviewed it on my blog:http://biis-books.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/the-woman-upstairs-by-claire-messud.html?m=1

My reaction was probably quite similar to yours, and I suspect many women reading this book will recognise an element of Nora in themselves which makes it a discomforting read.

Other good books in a similar vein:
The Woman Destroyed by Simone de Beauvoir - three short pieces about empowerment, anger and betrayal.
Dare Me by Megan Abbott - about female aggression and competitiveness. Told through the medium of cheerleaders. It's a very good read.

All of Virago's catalogue are feminist perspective books so you might find a range in there that show women with actual reactions which don't fit societal 'norms'.

[cacian]

the concept of anger in literature is quite riveting. I did ask somewhere else in a different forum whether they felt language let them down. I think when anger gets in the way of feelings language feels almost fragile about to crack under pressure. writing feels supercharged but does not give way.