| One of the most profound preceptions of feminist thought has been that what has been labeled "human" in our culture has in most cases actually meant "male." As feminist scholars in a variety of fields have begun to demonstrate, this has been the case in the area of ethical philosophy, and once again the tendency to see male experience as the norm has led to seeing female experience as deviant and almost by definition inferior. When one directly examines the experience of women, however, they instead appear to speak a different moral language than men, one that stresses responsibility and connection rather than rights and autonomy. This study attempts to elucidate the moral vision it terms a female ethic by examining its operation in the works of American women writers.Part II, Living a Female Ethic, examines more closely major elements of this female ethic and the ways in which they are acted out in the lives of women. Chapter 4 uses Mary Gordon's work to examine the rewards and risks of caregiving as a moral act. Chapter 5 examines the moral categories of innocense and responsibility through the work of Toni Morrison. Chapter 6 focuses on the moral dimension of loving and intimacy as depicted by Jane Rule. Chapter 7 then examines the moral summing-up that comes with old age and approaching death as illustrated by the novels of May Sarton.Part I, Envisioning a Female Ethic, examines the necessity and difficulties of forging such a moral stance and the environment and materials necessary to do so. Chapter 1 uses the work of novelist Gail Godwin to illustrate the uses of other women's stories, those of women one actually knows and those of women encountered in literature, in envisioning a female ethic. In Chapter 2, the poetry of Adrienne Rich presents us with an analysis of the similar uses of history in creating an ethic which is feminist as well as female. In contrast, Chapter 3 looks at the plays and memoirs of Lillian Hellman as an example of a moral intelligence burdened by the myth of female moral inferiority. |
