Event overview
Goldsmiths Literature Seminar
Angela Carlton
Rebecca West’s Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1941) is considered West’s Opus Magnum and covers her epic journey through the history, mythology and consciousness of the South Slavs between the wars. West’s goal was to discover whether the organisation of the South Slavs into a unified state was possible considering their rocky history of violence, misadministration and the diverse range of identities, religions and symbolisms that make up the region. Cavour said, “now there is an Italy but we have not yet got Italians” and my essay aims to understand how mythology and historical traditions can construct a unified national identity. But the focus of my investigation is to uncover where women fall into this construction. Throughout the text women are repetitively described as icons and bait to be used to symbolise and protect nation. The text is interesting both for the revelations it makes and the questions it raises about women’s identities within Yugoslavia and also for how Rebecca West as the protagonist, author and foreign outsider digests and is perceived within these landscapes and cultures. At a critical point within the text, Constantine, West’s guide, describes the differences between English men and Slavic men, and mentions women’s status as an outside limbo beyond cultural expectations, “because you are a woman, and so you have no very definite personality” (90). Nonetheless, women appear throughout the text as motivations directly influencing nation-building and cultural identity. My reading of West’s text as a modern female epic with West as the hero sacrificing self to comprehend questions of nation and order ultimately argues that women can only be epic heroes when their journeys are critical of homeland traditions, because as women they are constructed as nationless.
For more info, contact Tanguy Harma or Angela Carlton
tharm009@gold.ac.uk
enp02ac@gold.ac.uk
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 22 Jan 2015 | 6:30pm - 8:00pm |
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