Women in Maggie Gee's "The Artist" and "The Money". Helpless or not helping? (PDF)

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2020 im Fachbereich Anglistik - Literatur, Note: 2,5, Universität Rostock, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: This works compares bestselling author's Maggie Gee short stories. It centers around the topic of feminism und gender characterisation. In her collection of short stories "The Blue", published in 2006, Gee does not differ from her style to write female characters. The author being "a satirist of the most unflinching kind" (Dillon/Edwards 2015, p.1) connects to her portrayal of females, because of certain (British) stereotypes they share and the women taking a submissive role.

In this work I want to show this kind of picture of women in Gee's short stories "The Artist" and "The Money". Those stories both have a female protagonist, that is confronted with issues of race, gender, prejudice and poverty. The characters are mostly unaware of mistakes they make and existential questions that stay unasked. With they way they act and how their stories are told, this work will evaluate if the women in Gee's stories can't help the people in need around them or if they are oblivious or even not willing to help. In the beginning this work will give a short overview on women in contemporary literature, but the main discourse will circle around their relationship to the men in their surrounding and the identity they create throughout the stories.