sara paretsky
janet whyde
novels as political. I find them difficult to read them any other way. The
most obvious reason is in her choice of plots. Paretsky addresses directly
both women's and class issues in all her works, even if only peripherally
(e.g., attacks on abortion clinics, portrayals of women struggling against
other's expectations, emphasis on white-collar crime, racial and ethnic
tensions). V.I., in her very portrayal as a strong, independent, single
woman working in the traditionally "masculine" domain of private "dick"
explodes nearly every neat category that comprises women's cultural experiences
in the U.S. At the same time, she struggles with these categories explicitly
in the novels. Paretsky, in general, provides stories representing the
various struggles for power, esp. between the powerful (gov't, big business) vs
the weak (individuals, workers, the poor). Ute should also take a look into
the mysteries of Patricia Cornwell, who also examines the politics of being
a woman detective (in her case, forensic pathologist). It is quite fitting, I
think, that these women characters are in mysteries, for they excavate the
truth both in the plots of the novels and in the social forces faced by the
protagonists and, by extension, all us single, independent women in male-
dominated fields that face many of the same askance looks and condescension
that these characters deal with.
Ian York
> tensions). V.I., in her very portrayal as a strong, independent, single
> woman working in the traditionally "masculine" domain of private "dick"
> explodes nearly every neat category that comprises women's cultural experience
s
> in the U.S. At the same time, she struggles with these categories explicitly
> in the novels. Paretsky, in general, provides stories representing the
I haven't read the VI books, but I am somewhat uneasy about this
statement. Detective stories have a long tradition of freakish
protagonists - starting with Sherlock Holmes, successive writers seem to
feel that their characters need still more eccentricities than the last.
This has culminated in the abyssmal Mongo series, where the detective is
an ex-circus acrobat/dwarf with degrees in 6 subjects etc. Is VI treated
as yet another freak in the pantheon? Could she fit in another genre,
without this tradition? (I dunno, I'm asking.)
Ian
S.PAIN
Univ. of Illinois Press, 1988, Sara Paretsky succeeded in juggling the
demands of the detective novel and feminist ideology:
Finally, Paretsky's novels provide an explicit and persuasive awareness
of the gender inequality which pervades American life, persisting despite
the hopeful promise of a competent woman doing what is still called men's
work. The tensions between the demands of the detective novel and the
feminist ideology require a careful balancing act; Paretsky's is not the
only way, but it is virtually the only example.
But what are these tensions? Can we see Victoria Washawski as:
a first-narrator who cares about women's roles and their treatment without
referring to the gender of the author? Does it matter whether V.I. was
created by a woman. What of "Ironsides" or of other "weird detectives" and
thattradition. Is the feminist detective a "freak"? An does her exceptional
qualities serve as a model? Stephen.
janet whyde
way. What is peculiar about her as a character and interesting about her
role is that Paretsky avoids making her simply a female graduate of the
Dashielle Hammett detective school; V.I. as detective grapples explicitly
with some of the specific problems posed by her gender in her chosen career.
(In fact, she is a former lawyer--ok, maybe she is freakish--and an opera
fan.) Paretsky also avoids making her a superhero; she often turns to others
for help, but she resents and resists doing so. The fundamental question--
and it is the question that makes the work "political" for me--is How is a
woman supposed to act in a role with only masculine role models? The books are
interesting because we see the character grappling within herself to answer
this question. They are, by the way, also good mysteries.