Leah Sewell

Final Report

WU-CSI Summer Project

Virginia Woolf wrote in 1929 that women could be successful as writers if "we have five hundred a year each of us and rooms of our own." I found myself in this sort of optimal situation this summer. With funding from the WU-CSI grant, I was freed up to spend hours in my office in front of my computer screen, or at my desk with my nose in books. I was originally worried that self-directed study would be difficult. I could envision distractions pulling my attention away or my old nemesis, procrastination, rearing its ugly head. But I came to find that, once I began to do my research, I became single-minded, my thoughts always returning to my research topic. I did a bit of troubleshooting, without really knowing I had done so, at the start of my project. I chose a topic that pertains to my own life and life goals.

I began my project by writing poetry, something I do quite often, and without being paid for it. In the meantime I collected book titles and thought about the subject: women and their literature - what women writers had to say about women's experience through their writings. I started out with five women writers in mind whose works and lives I would study. But once I picked out books at the library or they began arriving in boxes at my door and I opened the pages, skimmed, and got a general understanding of these women's lives and work, my plans had to change. For instance, Elizabeth Bishop, one of my favorite poets, has denied any intention of feminist sentiments in her poetry. She has also asked that her poems not be included in anthologies of women's literature. She strives to remain neutral. Upon reading her poetry more thoroughly, for the purposes of gleaning some representation of women's reality in the mid-twentieth century, I was hard-pressed to find any obvious evidence. And I wished for my poetry explications to be based on what the literature itself presented. I did not want to make faulty assumptions.

I changed my plans. With the suggestion of my advisor, I began to focus on two woman poets who I had not considered including in my critical paper. Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton discussed, in several of their poems, the very same social conditions I was focusing upon in my paper. Their work and their lives represented one aspect. And, I pleasantly realized, the other two women writers, Tillie Olsen and Adrienne Rich, neatly represented another aspect. The thread that ran throughout my paper was the typical life of a fifties housewife, represented by my own grandmother, and fleshed out through the writings of Ruth Rosen, Tillie Olsen, and Betty Friedan.

I have learned much from working on this project. I read essays, articles, and books that I later found I could not use in my critical paper, but I value the knowledge I acquired from them because I am better informed in an area of study that truly interests me. I feel I can use this knowledge later, in graduate school, in lectures, or when debating gender issues with friends and acquaintances. I enjoyed dwelling upon the life of my grandmother, speculating about how she experienced her times. I also learned about a tradition that allows me to be what I am today: a woman who writes.

I plan to investigate the possibility of reading my paper at a conference on American literature in Kentucky in February of 2006. I have submitted some of the poetry I have written for this project to several literary reviews, and I await their replies. I intend to continue to revise these poems and strive for their publication. In the spring of 2006 I hope to present my critical and creative works at the Apeiron Forum at Washburn University.

I would like to thank the WU-CSI grant committee for allowing me the opportunity to work on this project. I also thank my advisor, Amy Fleury, for her guidance and for bringing this opportunity to my attention.