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Lesbian and/or Feminist Literature and Writing

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Lumière:
Another title to add to the list of period, lesbian novels.
Pretty much every review I have read of this book has been good.


The World Unseen
by Shamim Sarif




Amazon.ca
In 1950's South Africa, free-spirited Amina has broken all the rules of her own conventional Indian community, and the new apartheid-led government, by running a café with Jacob her 'coloured' business partner. When she meets Miriam, a young wife and mother, their unexpected attraction pushes Miriam to question the rules that bind her and a chain of events is set in motion that changes both women forever. The World Unseen transports us to a vibrant, colourful world, a world that divides white from black and women from men, but one that might just allow an unexpected love to survive.

About the Author
Shamim Sarif lives in London with her partner Hanan and their two children. She was born in the UK, and is of South African and Indian descent. This heritage formed the starting point for her first novel, 'The World Unseen' which won a Betty Trask Award and the Pendleton May First Novel Award. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.


This book has also been adapted into a movie.  One review below:


THE WORLD UNSEEN Movie Review
http://www.hdfest.com/Gerald/worldunseen.html

Director, writer and actress Shamim Sarif brings her sensitive yet powerful novel of the same title to the screen. It depicts love, traditions, culture, bigotry and denial in 1950's South Africa.

This film with exceptionally fine crafted cinematography, focuses on two oppressed women living in Cape Town. The first woman is Amina, a woman of mixed blood (she is part Indian and part Black African) portrayed by Sheetal Sheth. She is a considered a free spirited person during these early years of apartheid. She is the owner of a cafe, an Indian man named Jacob (David Dennis) assists her. Amina wears trousers and speaks her mind when it comes to injustice.

The second woman is Miriam, an Indian with three children. Her marriage was planned by her family and she accepted her fate in life as a subservient mate to her physically abusive husband Omar (Parvin Dabas). Omar is a store owner and he provides for his family; however, he rules his family firmly, much like all men of his culture and race. With the backdrop of a government that racially profiles people of color, Amina and Miriam meet and form a friendship that blooms into something more.

The background scenes are spacious and breathtaking. However, what was even more beautiful were the two leading ladies. Sheetal Sheth is an American actress of Indian origin, best known for starring opposite Albert Brooks in Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World (2006). Lisa Ray is an Indo-Canadian actress who began her career with the Bollywood film Kasoor (2001). Ray is best known for her female lead in Bollywood/Hollywood (2002)

The chemistry of these ladies is perfect on screen and their performances compliment each other. When they kiss, a certain shyness is projected as neither of them is in the habit of kissing another woman. However, the actresses both brilliantly capture the feeling of an unsurprised rush of emotion. The result is a unique and tasteful scene of easing into a lesbian love affair. The whole scenario blends gracefully into the many suspenseful changes of events in the film.

This cinematic marvel transports the audience into historical South Africa, while simultaneously taking them into a world that segregates white from black. I was caught up in the division of women and men, and how each lived in this environment of political unrest.

This is one the most sincere films I've seen in quite some time.

FILM RATING (B+)

Brown Eyes:

Heya!

I'm hear to report that I finally finished Beyond the Pale! And, I thoroughly enjoyed it through to the end.

**Spoilers ahead**

Wow this book is packed with drama.  And, I loved all the historical context.  I'll say that as soon as I started seeing Triangle Shirtwaist mentioned in the story I kind of predicited in my mind that Rose would end up involved in the tragic fire.  Maybe about a year or two ago I saw a PBS program that discussed the Triangle fire disaster in detail.  If I remember correctly, it was a program about the labor movement and talked a lot about the Triangle fire as a big turning point for certain aspects of workplace safety regulations that impact labor policies to this day.  But, wow, what a terribly sad way for the book to more or less conclude.  The detail and the evocative way that the author describes the horror of the fire were really gripping... just as dramatic and horrifying (in different ways) as the earlier descriptions of the pogrom in Russia that Chava lives through.

I enjoyed the strategy of having Chava be a sort of witness to historical events.  It provided a really personal perspective and window into these real-life historic events.  And, seeing how lesbian culture dovetails with so many historic events and contexts is also so interesting... obviously because so much of lesbian history is kept invisible in mainstream or conventional histories.

The role of lesbians in things like the settlement movement, union movement and suffrage simply makes sense when you really think about it.  And, it was interesting to see in-depth, narrative descriptions of how these lesbian social networks worked.  I'm also fascinated by the ways that different movements impacted each other... like the union movement in relation to suffrage, etc.

Honestly, I wish the story continued a bit.  I would love to see how things go for Chava in Ohio with the suffrage movement.  I feel like we see so much tragedy in relation to Chava's life experiences (though, we also do see some glimpses of pleasure and joy too)... it would be nice to see how her life progresses a little further out from the tragedy with Rose.

The role of Dovid/Dovida was so fascinating in this book too.  I feel like that kind of history is even more cloaked in mystery than other aspects of lesbian history.  What a fascinating thing to imagine women masquerading as men and working for women's rights issues within the context of the male establishment.  I wonder how much of that really went on historically.  I'm glad that Chava decided to pursue her future in Ohio "in women's clothes" so to speak.  I think it's important for women as women or "women among women" (as Dykewomon described) to fight for their own issues and causes.  I think it's important (and was particularly important probably at the turn of the century) for the public to begin to see women as self-sufficient and powerful in their own right -- different from men.  I say this while also recognizing the contribution of the kind of activity shown by Dovid/Dovida too.  I suppose the Dovid/Dovida situation illustrates a kind of subversiveness and imagination in terms of life-strategy that many people couldn't conceive.  The thing that was interesting about this particular character as written in the novel is that she didn't really seem to identify as a transexual.  At home Dovida seemed happy enough to acknowledge or identify with a kind of femaleness.  Her masquerade seemed so deliberate and strategic.

Brown Eyes:


OK, so I'm back to recommend another book that I've mentioned to Milli before.

It's called Life Mask from 2004 by Emma Donoghue and it's another novel set in a historic context with major lesbian characters.  I read this quite a while ago and remember really enjoying it.  It's a complex novel, which is something I always like.

<img src="http://www.divshare.com/img/6088755-f5e.jpg" border="0" />

Here's the blurb from the back of the book.

"Vividly bringing to life the glittering spectacle of late eighteenth-century England, bestselling author Emma Donoghue turns the private drama of three celebrated Londoners into a robust portrait of a world on the brink of revolution.  Lord Derby, the unhappily married creator of the eponymouse horse race, is the steadfast suitor of a leading comedy star, the lowborn Eliza Farren, but their unconsummated courtship jeopardizes his stature.  When the ambitious actress begins an intimate friendship with the aristocratic widow and sculptor Anne Damer, the resulting scandal threatens to destroy the lives of all three.  Relationships dissolve, marriages crumble, and political liasons prove as dangerous as erotic ones in this sensational worls where everyone wears a mask."

Lumière:

--- Quote from: atz75 on December 14, 2008, 03:50:09 pm ---
OK, so I'm back to recommend another book that I've mentioned to Milli before.

<img src="http://www.divshare.com/img/6088755-f5e.jpg" border="0" />

--- End quote ---

Ah yes, I think I will start on this book after the one I am currently reading.  :)

Lumière:
Hey Amanda,

Thank you for that great review of Beyond the Pale, bud.  :)


The one thing I loved about this novel is the way E. Dykewomon intertwines the lives of her characters with real historical events like the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.

Here is a blurb on the Triangle Shirtwaist Company [wikipiedia]:




The company employed approximately 600 workers, mostly young immigrant women from different places in Germany, Italy and Eastern Europe. Some of the women were as young as twelve or thirteen and worked fourteen-hour shifts during a 60-hour to 72-hour workweek. According to Pauline Newman, a worker at the factory, the average wage for employees in the factory was six to seven dollars a week[3], at a time when the average yearly income was $791.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Company had already become well-known outside the garment industry by 1911: the massive strike by women's shirtwaist makers in 1909, known as the Uprising of 20,000, began with a spontaneous walkout at the Triangle Company. During the strike, owners Blanck and Harris, two anti-union-leaders paid hoodlums to attack the protesting workers and hired prostitutes as replacement workers to show contempt for the strikers.[5]

While the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union negotiated a collective bargaining agreement covering most of those workers after a four-month strike, the Triangle Shirtwaist Company refused to sign the agreement.  [...]

On the afternoon of March 25, 1911, a fire began on the eighth floor, possibly sparked by a lit match or a cigarette or because of faulty electrical wiring. A New York Times article also theorized that the fire may have been started by the engines running the sewing machines in the building. To this day, no one knows whether it was accidental or intentional. Most of the workers who were alerted on the tenth and eighth floors were able to evacuate. However, the warning about the fire did not reach the ninth floor in time. [...]

The ultimate death toll was 148, including 141 who died at the scene and seven survivors who later died at hospitals.


What a horrific tragedy indeed.  It is sad to know that an event as tragic as this was what it might have taken for labor/safety regulations and workplace conditions to be changed.

I had not heard about the Triangle Shirtwaist Company prior to reading this novel (I later did a little research on it), and so I was not prepared for the painful experience that was to come when Rose left Chava that morning and headed to work.  I was not prepared for Rose's death.  It shook me up and I cried when I read that part of the novel, just like I did when Chava witnessed her mother being raped and murdered during that pogrom in Kishinev.  Rose's death was yet another heavy blow to Chava, a young woman who had already seen so much grief and felt so much pain in her short life. 

Not unlike Brokeback Mountain, Beyond the Pale ends on a more or less tragic note, as you pointed out...
And that is the haunting impact it has on you; it leaves you wanting more.  I would've loved to see how Ennis' life unfolds after Jack's death, just like it would've been awesome to catch a glimpse into Chava's life in Ohio, her role in the suffrage movement, her next love after Rose ...
Reading the novel, you got a sense that Chava was meant to accomplish great things in her life - you are just not given the opportunity to see them or to experience the full, happy life you hope she finds down the road. :)


Yeah, the character of Dovid/Dovida was fascinating indeed.  One might have characterised her as the typical 'sexual invert' of her day, but like you said, she was content being a woman when she was at home with Gutke.  Out in the world, she bacame a man - she walked, talked, acted, worked like a man...and earned as much money as only a man could at that time.   I can only imagine the risks she bore; how she must've worked hard to overcome the fear of being 'discovered' as a woman masquerading as a man living with another woman, like a married couple would.  I guess you could say that her adoption of a male persona 'out in the world' made it possible for her to work in a profession, in a job that may not have been granted to a women - thereby earning enough money to live as comfortably as she did; it allowed her to live openly with her partner.  I guess the benefits of her chosen 'lifestyle' must've outweighed any risks she had to contend with.  Very interesting indeed.

I loved the character of Gutke because of her ability to instill a sense of calm in me; her outlook on life, her wisdom, her kindness, and of course...the maternal role she played in Chava's life - all very inspiring. 

The following is an excerpt from Gutke's journal, after she meets Dovida in Kishinev:

Dovida was such a pleasure to me that even when other opportunities presented themselves — an unhappily married woman reaching for my hand, a friend of Dovida’s from Berlin trying to sweet-talk me — I was never tempted. The way it was between Dovida and me was what I wanted, not because it was the only possibility but because Dovida absorbed my attention, even when I wasn’t sure I liked her. The flame I saw the night I met her never left, though it often changed shape, intensity or color.


So beautiful.  :)
And of course there is this Gutke quote from the beginning of the book:

"Whenever you tell the story of one woman, inside is another."

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