In this second episode in the series, Sonja and Vanessa travel through the play, keeping a sharp eye on Juliet.  Is Juliet as demure as many stage performances make her seem? 

Romeo makes the first move at the party, but by the end of the night, is he the one in charge of the relationship?  And let’s really consider what’s said in the famously “romantic” balcony scene…how much of it really fits the term “romantic”?  The answers to many of these questions will likely surprise you.

Along the way, we learn about the joys of nursing--including a clever trick for weaning your baby--and we let Mercutio school us on why you hope a fairy, dashing about in an empty hazelnut-shell carriage, does not make her way into your bedroom at night. 

We are using the Yale Press version of Romeo and Juliet, editor Burton Raffel, 2004.

To watch the courtly love story in action, ROMEO & JULIET seems like the best place to start.

In the first of a 3-part series, Sonja and Vanessa offer helpful historical and literary foundations that help us read/understand the play.  Learn about original source material, Renaissance Italian government, marriage practices, and why, in William Shakespeare’s acting company, Juliet would have been played by a young man. 

After explaining why all shirts that say “Shakespeare was a plagiarist” should be burned, Vanessa offers some insights on how Shakespeare made the story very much his own…so much so that it is–far and away–the most read/performed/known version of the story.

If you read the play in high school or if you have never read it, this break down of the play will remind you of what you forgot–and might even explain some things you never knew. 

Keep in mind that ROMEO & JULIETis the Shakespeare play with the most sexual references of any of his plays…and many American high schools teach censored/abbreviated versions, so you might find out the play was a little different than you thought.  

Along the way, we find out that the original Juliet has a very original way to end her life, someone is famous for having cold hands, and men have fun, pointing pointy objects around.

REFERENCES:

We are using the Yale Press version of Romeo and Juliet, editor Burton Raffel, 2004. 

Vanessa is on the search for the original article she read years ago arguing that boy players were used on the English Renaissance stage not because it was illegal for women to perform, but rather because of the male guild system. 

If you want to check out Luigi da Porto's 1540 version of Romeo and Juliet, this is an easy to read online copy (Italian and English parallel texts, no less).

If you are interested in learning more from world-renowned Shakespeare scholar, Stephen Greenblatt, you could start with his famed volume, Renaissance Self Fashioning that is a classic in the field of Early Modern studies both in terms of history and literary criticism.  He also has a wonderfully accessible biography of Shakespeare, Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare.

For the story on how two of Shakespeare’s friends saved many of his plays from being lost, seven years after his death, this is a highly-readable, relatively brief story of their work to gather the quarto editions of the plays, publish the plays, and how the Folger Library in DC would not exist if not for the First Folio:  The Book of William: How Shakespeare's First Folio Conquered the World by Paul Collins

What if romantic love is just a story we made up? Looking back at the origins of courtly love, it looks like we might have. 

Sonja takes us back to the Middle Ages and explains how, in an attempt to control a particular problem, society might have created a story that still echoes today. 

This is the story that, on one hand, animates beloved romcoms, while on the other hand, forges die-hard Valentine’s Day haters.  As an illustration of this story in action, Sonja takes Vanessa through a wonderful retelling of one of literature’s most influential courtly love stories:  the tale of Tristan and Iseult.  

If you’ve ever wondered why society seems to put such a high value on romantic love or have sensed something dark and unsettling lurking in the storyline, then you’ll be interested to hear how it all got started.  Along the way, we find out that all boats should have harps in their First Aid kids, boots are handy for storing body parts, and sometimes your ex and your wife have the same name. 

Because of the wildness of the Tristan and Iseult tale, this will be the first Explicit episode of In Walks a Woman, so if you are listening with kiddos in the backseat, you might wait until you drop them off at school.  

REFERENCES:

The Romance of Tristan & Iseult by J. Bedier & translated by Hilaire Belloc can be purchased here.

Love in the Western World by Denis de Rougemont can be purchased here new or here used.

If you’ve ever felt you should read Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel, FRANKENSTEIN, but shortly after starting, found your resolve fading…this is the episode for you! 

Sonja commandingly takes the literary wheel and unpacks this intricate novel by illuminating its structure, major themes, and fills in some of the philosophical underpinnings that Shelley explores.  Aside from sharing some childhood Goethe trauma, Vanessa just puts up her feet and enjoys the show. 

You, too, will love having the novel broken down for you, whether you have read it, hope to read it, or read it and hope to understand it better.   

At the dawn of the 1800’s, FRANKENSTEIN was conceived and executed by a ferociously bright young woman (18 years old when she starts writing it and 19 when she finishes) and her literary creation has rippled beyond her native England to the entire world as a symbol of the dangers of science, thoughtless creation, the importance of community…and our concept of the monstrous both in body and in deed. 

Victor “births” a creature–just to see if he can–and his egotistical deed haunts the creature, Victor’s family and friends, and himself, unto death.

Along the way, get some tips on how to read by spying on a family in their cottage home, travel to the uninhabited Arctic looking for a bff, learn how convenient it is to have a beautiful 1st cousin willing to marry you, and marvel at how a self-obsessed young man manages to destroy everyone he loves.

Regardless of the huge historical and cultural influence, Shelley’s novel is a great story!

In the Show Notes this week, find links to several overviews of writers, ideas, and other novels that Sonja and Vanessa touch on as they explore Frankenstein.  

REFERENCES:

Link to National Theater Production of Frankenstein with Benedict Cumberbatch as the Monster

There are many good editions of the 1818 edition of Frankenstein, and we were using the Broadview Press edition that is available for purchase through the publisher or second hand on many used book websites.  In addition to the text, it contains several very helpful critical articles and helps one understand the influence of Mary Shelley’s two literary parents on her work.

Here is an overview of the Romantic Period from Eastern Connecticut State University that covers the main ideas and notes key writers of both poetry and prose that can give you a good sense of who else to read if you are interested in this time period.

Thought Co article on Gothic Literature would be a good starting point if you hear the word “gothic” and are not sure what it means. 

If you want an intro to the ideas of Edmund Burke, you might start here on the Great Thinkers website.

We also mentioned Harriet Lerner’s renowned classic, The Dance of Anger.  This and Lerner’s other insightful works are available through the Harriet Lerner Website.  So worth checking out!

This Smithsonian article explains Galvanism, in case you want to create your own monster (Frankenstein is referenced in this article), or if–as Sonja noted–you just want to animate a noodle.  (We all have different goals in life.) 

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy offers an overview of Rousseau’s life and explains how he develops his theory that humanity is basically good but corrupted by society.  

Other Works Mentioned:  The links here are to our favorite local bookstore, The Raven Bookstore in Lawrence Kansas, and they can ship anywhere!  Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Tarzan of the Apes and Johann Wolfgang von Geothe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther

The Royal Society of Chemistry has a quick overview of the principles of alchemy here.  If you end up making gold out of lead, please do send us a nugget to support the podcast.

Good witches and ever-loyal Kansans, Sonja and Vanessa, consider a fresh reading of the widely acknowledged “American Fairy Tale,” THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ  Written in 1900 by L. Frank Baum, and later made into an internationally-influential and dearly-beloved film in 1939, we ask what message Dorothy’s story sends to female viewers/readers.  

Let’s start with this interesting aspect: Dorothy is on an odyssey (as our discussions in IWAW Season 1 suggest), but she sure doesn’t want to be on it!  Dorothy Gale almost instantly aches to return to bleak Kansas, her home, and entertains very little curiosity for the magical land in which she finds herself.

In essence, Dorothy falls into an adventure with--noticeably--no sense of adventure. Why? She keeps saying there’s no place like home, but is that the same as saying home is a good place?

Vanessa tries valiantly to convince Sonja that we might even have a motherhood theme at work in a novel with no moms.  Does she succeed? Tune in for a fresh perspective, provocative questions, and a great appreciation for this rich story that we never tire of, truly in the way of fairy tales. 

It’s worth noting that while J. R. Tolkien purposely created an English epic and mythology, L. Frank Baum just wanted to make a fun story for children with no moralizing purpose…and the result was a tale that has organically become THE American fairy tale.  

If you’ve ever wondered how the book and movie differ, would like to know more about the man who made every convenience store in Kansas sell Oz merch, you’ll love this episode. 

Plus, if you’re up for looking at a classic novel and movie in a new way, thinking about stories that say things maybe they did not intend–and maybe we were not expecting–then this is a great episode for you.  Like it or not, the Oz story has shaped our lives, and it’s fascinating to reflect on how it has shaped us.  

REFERENCES:

In Walks a Woman podcast  is proud to record at the Lawrence Public Library, in Lawrence, Kansas.

If you are interested in a beautifully-illustrated edition of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, check out the Centennial Edition in paperback by the University of Kansas Press.

For more information on the 1893 Columbian World Fair in Chicago with the “white city” that inspired the Emerald City, check out this article with photos from the Chicago Architecture Center.

If you doubt that admiration for Baum and Oz are still alive in the 21st century, check out the International Wizard of Oz Club.

For more information on L. Frank Baum’s mother-in-law, Matilda Gage, check out this great Smithsonian article:  "The Feminist Who Inspired the Witches of Oz".

Link to prints of the Land of Oz Map, as described in the show.

Check out this cool article on W.W. Denslow's Illustrations for the first edition of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz from 1900, with many sample illustrations.

Sonja and Vanessa consider TV moms who inspired American women in the 80’s and 90’s.  Given the warm response to our pop culture episode in our first season (S1E10: “Madonna, Maggie, Diana, Cyndi & Sinead–Gen X Heroines”), we were excited to review some fictional moms from our youth.

Clair Huxtable of the Cosby Show, demonstrated how to raise five children, while looking fashionable and gorgeous, exuding educated elegance, wit, and feminist passion. 

Rosanne Conner, tutored us in unapologetic snark for Reagan era policies that left her working-class family forgotten in the dust.  Rosanne raises 3 kids on part time jobs with intelligence, savvy, and resilience that lets laughter ring out defiantly in her home–every single day.

Finally, the most long-lasting TV mom, Marge Simpson, in a nutshell, probably deserves sainthood. Marge is both a satire and a loving salute to pearl-wearing housewives of yesteryear.  Let’s just say that June Cleaver never faced the challenges Marge does.  What other TV mom can hold a candle to Marge’s 36-season (and counting) optimism, ingenuity, and long-suffering patience?  

We look at all three characters as mothers whose stories partly shaped what we hoped we’d be as mothers.  Why did they make an impression on us? What did their stories leave us expecting when we were expecting?  And were these stories on the mark?  Were any parts of the stories ultimately misleading or unhelpful?  As we pursue these queries, Sonja shares a secret about bra burning, and Vanessa (tries) to sing the Enjoli commercial song.  

REFERENCES:

NPR's Fresh Air Interview about the documentary We Need to Talk about Cosby

Article from Slate in 2014 about Clair Huxtable:  The Other Huxtable Effect 

2018 Article about Rosanne in Meanjin Online:  When Capitalism Saves Us from Ourselves

In our second half of Shirley Jackson’s biography,* we pick up in 1939 when Shirley is about to marry Stanley, and for a full portrait of Stanley, you’ll absolutely want to check out S2E7 “The Very Haunted Life of Shirley Jackson.” 

Again, as we highlight in the show notes for the previous episode, this episode is only made possible by the scholarship of Jackson biographer, Ruth Franklin. We have drawn primarily on Franklin’s 2016 biography of SHIRLEY JACKSON: A RATHER HAUNTED LIFE, and we highly recommend it as thorough, thoughtful, and engaging.  If you love Jackson or if you are interested in what 1950’s life was like for women and female artists, get your hands on Franklin’s marvelous book! 

In this episode, for Jackson, children and books start coming along at about equal intervals in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, and then we really get to see a woman writing full time, while also being an attentive mother, a loyal wife + maid, cook, and laundress. 

Hear about how Jackson manages this challenge admirably, in a time when neither her husband, nor her parents, nor her society offered her any physical or emotional support.  

As they review Shirley Jackson’s adult life with a focus on motherhood, Sonja and Vanessa pause to give special attention to Jackson’s 1953 family memoir, Life Among the Savages, about raising her 4 children.  It’s brilliant. 

Add to that, it’s hard not to marvel at a writer who masters nonfiction humor writing AND also writes fictional horror at a level that makes her one of Stephen King’s greatest influences. Jackson’s Life Among the Savages takes us on a jolly journey through 1950’s America, where parenting requires ashtrays and no child car seats.  

Shirley Jackson’s life was short, and packed into it are all the forces arrayed against mid-century American women–the constraints of maintaining a home, the unquestioned deference to husbands, the constant pressure to be feminine and slim, all alongside a very human desire to pursue what your mind and spirit need… and if that need happens to be writing, in the 1950’s, you probably have to wait for your husband to allow you a turn at the typewriter.   

*CORRECTION: In this episode, Vanessa says that Jackson was not physically well enough to attend the Haunting of Hill House movie premier, but what she should have said is that Jackson did attend, but just barely, and Stanley had to accompany her. Apologies for this factual inaccuracy.

REFERENCES:

Ruth Franklin's biography:  A Very Haunted Life

Goodreads Review of Life Among the Savages

Shirley Jackson, one of America’s greatest writers, was also a mother of 4 children in the 1950’s, and she worked from home writing, cooking, writing, nursing sick kids, writing, doing laundry, writing, shopping, writing, going to parent-teacher conferences, and also taking care of her husband Stanley, who was a legendary college professor but who was so incapable of adulting that his two daughters had to come take care of him after Shirley died because he didn’t even know how to make himself a cup of coffee.

We bring you this episode in large part thanks to the careful, thorough, and passionate scholarship of biographer Ruth Franklin and her brilliantly-written 2016 biography, SHIRLEY JACKSON: A RATHER HAUNTED LIFE.

We knew we had to include Shirley Jackson in our season on motherhood because of how much Shirley’s own mother impacted her life and what a heroic feat of organization, love, hard work, and humor she brought to the act of birthing and raising 4 children while birthing and seeing to publication over 200 short stories, 2 best-selling memoirs, and 6 novels. 

Within those works lie some of the most probing studies of female characters trying to literally maintain their sanity–with varying degrees of success–in a society that wants them to be college-educated housewives who work like unpaid servants but who do it all cheerfully in high heels and wearing pearls.  

Part 1 covers Jackson’s life from her birth in 1916 to the late 1930’s, in her college years when she meets Stanley Hyman who will be both her greatest champion and the source of her deep sense of abandonment. 

Along the way, Sonja and Vanessa brush up against Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, Karl Marx’s Das Kapital, L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and the happily-very-rarely used term, “transcendental groin.”  

REFERENCES:

Ruth Franklin's Shirley Jackson: A Very Haunted Life

A brief overview of Betty Friedan's life & main argument of The Feminine Mystique (1963)

Ruth Franklin’s biography of Jackson contains several of Jackson’s cartoons, but this Washington Post article also includes a couple showing Jackson’s satirization of her lounging husband, in the midst of her non-stop work as a full-time homemaker & writer who, eventually, made more money than he did.  

Ruth Franklin’s scholarship goes far beyond her 2016 biography of Jackson:  check out Ruth Franklin's Website!

Mother knows best, the old saying goes. But what if your mother is constantly trying to ship you with strange, rich men?  Believe it or not, if you’re in England, circa 1800, having such a mum might have its upsides. 

Sonja and Vanessa offer a lively run-through of PRIDE & PREJUDICE with an eye on the character who, in terms of dialogue, speaks second-only to Miss Elizabeth Bennet herself. (No, it’s not Mr. Darcy.)  It’s Elizabeth’s mother, Mrs. Bennet, who talks her way into second place with gossip, scheming, and fashion advice. 

And yet, we pose the question of whether this mother–universally acknowledged as silly–may also be wise.  In this classic novel’s playfully astute look at patriarchy’s true ridiculousness, we spotlight Mrs. Bennet, wondering if, perhaps, she may be the marriage game’s MVP. 

Along the way, Sonja indulges in a bit of Lady Catherine worship, and Vanessa mixes up her balls, and together they offer at least a couple of fresh insights into the world’s ongoing obsession with PRIDE & PREJUDICE, a novel merely attributed to the nameless  “Author of Sense and Sensibility” when published that has, nonetheless, cast the shadow of a giant across the landscape of the literary world, over two hundred years later. 

REFERENCES:

Jo Baker's novel, Longbourne

Live from Pemberley, Season 4 Hot & Bothered Podcast

Ben Fensom, lip synch PP miniseries from the 90's

@somebenfen (on Instagram)

In so many ways, Toni Morrison expanded the reaches of our cultural imagination both in terms of understanding our history and exploring the intricate landscape of the human psyche through language. 

BELOVED, Morrison’s 1987 masterpiece, alternates settings between 1850’s Kentucky and 1870’s Ohio, depicting Sethe, protagonist and former slave, isolated and dealing with trying to live on after the scarring trauma of slavery.  She finds herself feeling, for instance, the complicated nostalgia for the beautiful trees of the plantation where she grew up…while those very trees were used to hang black men she knew. 

The reader recognizes the truth of this feeling, while reeling at the profoundly unresolvable conflict it creates for Sethe. Morrison takes on these painful paradoxes, including the desire of a mother to protect her children…at any cost.  And then, that same mother has to live with the cost as a personal regret, when the faceless structures of an evil institution made her choice necessary. 

Sonja and Vanessa consider how Morrison puts a mother, Sethe, at the center of her meditation on historical shadows, collective trauma, grief, memory, regret, and loss of self through Sethe’s story. 

Sonja offers clear, helpful historical context for the American prewar period of the 1850’s and also Reconstruction, in the 1870’s.  Vanessa gives an overview of the plot, and there are spoilers, but nothing can detract from the immersive experience it is to read Morrison’s lyrical prose, so–even after listening to this episode– readers can absolutely enjoy the novel for the first time or the fiftieth.

Please be advised  that Morrison’s novel deals with violence, including infanticide, and the episode discusses these aspects of the novel, so it might not be a good fit for all listeners.

REFERENCES:

The Black Book, Edited by Toni Morrison

Text of The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, Yale Law School Library

12 Years a Slave, Publisher's Website

Dred Scott Case / National Archives

Text of the 13th Amendment,  Congress.gov

Text of the 14th Amendment, Congress.gov

Text of the 15th Amendment, Congress.gove

Historical Context of the film, Birth of a Nation

Info on 1989 film Field of Dreams

Information on Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, HBStowe Foundation Site

Uncle Tom's Cabin, novel for purchase

Ta-Nehisi Coates's The Water Dancer, novel for purchase

Julie Otsuka's Buddha in the Attic, novel for purchase

Federico Garcia Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba, play for purchase in English

Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse, novel for purchase