I can't quite explain.

I am impressed, although a bit taken aback, by the ways in which Steedman confronts what she sees as major pitfalls in how accounts of working-women and mothers are simplified during the 1950’s, a time of significant po.

For a woman of my age - roughly that of the author - it provides insight to some world changing events. by Rutgers University Press. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account.

Welcome back. What happens to cultural criticism when you confront it with. While reading Landscape for a Good Woman, I noticed a strong parallel between the style in which Steedman decides to write this book and the ways in which my women’s studies readings challenge traditional disciplinary approaches by using and giving legitimacy to personal stories. 100 Biographies & Memoirs to Read in a Lifetime: Readers' Picks, Landscape for a Good Woman: A Story of Two Lives - Carolyn Kay Steedman, Mariah Carey Is Telling Her Own Story (and Recommending Books). There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists.

Book Details Author: Carolyn Steedman Publisher: Virago Press Ltd Edition: 1998 . Excellent. While reading Landscape for a Good Woman, I noticed a strong parallel between the style in which Steedman decides to write this book and the ways in which my women’s studies readings challenge traditional disciplinary approaches by using and giving legitimacy to personal stories. Something went wrong. Please try your request again later. Through an in-depth comparison of personal experience and prevailing political and social science theory on the psychology and attitudes of working-class people, Landscape for a Good Woman challenges an intellectual tradition that denies "its subjects a particular story, a personal history, except when that story illustrates a general thesis." This book is about the centrality of some stories and the marginality of others, and about the stories we tell ourselves to explain our lives. And what happens to theories of patriarchy when autobiography deals with a working-class father who isn't important in the world outside the household? This is an interesting work about class, psychoanalyses and how young girls' working class childhoods are influenced by their understanding of their position in society. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. What happens when psychoanalysis is asked to look at women who don't possess the wish for a child? In the start of the book, Steedman acknowledges that she is not writing a history for everyone (she even denies that her book is a work of history). 'Landscape for a Good Woman' marks a turning point in how history is written. Steedman's mother was a chronically dissatisfied working-class woman angry about her life of material deprivation. I know this and you don't. This book is about lives lived out on the borderlands, lives for which the central interpretative devices of the culture don't quite work.

In particular, she brilliantly highlights the way in which class is effaced within the academy: "I read a woman's book, meet such a woman at a party (a woman now, like me) and think quite deliberately as we talk: we are divided: a hundred years ago I'd have been cleaning your shoes. This was a very stimulating book that anyone who wants to think critically about issues surrounding class, femininity, sexuality motherhood and race. Judith Walkowitz. At once a biography of her mother, an autobiography, and a philosophical study of gender and class, Landscape for a Good Woman is a beautiful exposition of the intersections of class and patriarchy in 1950s Britain through one woman's life. We’d love your help. It bridges biography/autobiography/academic writing. Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2015. In the start of the book, Steedman acknowledges that she is not writing a history for everyone (she even denies that her book is a … 'Provocative and quite dazzling in its ambitions. Deeply felt, beautifully written, and above all convincing, Steedman has produced a shattering family history in the mold of a psycho-analytic myth: the story of an individual that is the story of all. Prime members enjoy FREE Delivery and exclusive access to music, movies, TV shows, original audio series, and Kindle books.

In the start of the book, Steedman acknowledges that she is not writing a history for everyone (she even denies that her book is a work of history).

Prime members enjoy FREE Delivery and exclusive access to music, movies, TV shows, original audio series, and Kindle books. It sort of feels all over the place, but every part of it reads towards her argument and it's really compelling in the ways she mines her own experience for these pieces. Please try again. Saying this it is only a short read and is a quirky autobiography, biography and academic piece so it doesn’t have a true category so it is hard to rate. We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Steedman's mother was a chronically dissatisfied working-class woman angry about her life of material deprivation. There are lives, real lives, and there are the theories that explain them.

'Landscape for a Good Woman' marks a turning point in how history is written. Download file to see previous pages The landscape for a good woman is not a conscientiously developed book of conflicting theories but somehow emerged as a challenge to many existing notions. Nobody really, truly fits our easy narratives, but we have to make them fit, because we need history to make sense, individual idiosyncrasies be damned. It also analyzes reviews to verify trustworthiness. I think that it does speak to women. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations, Select the department you want to search in, Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2006, An absorbing memoir of the author's childhood in post WWII London. Unable to add item to List. I can't quite explain it, but I found it to be a really interesting, compelling read and I definitely recommend it.
It's an extraordinary book. There's a problem loading this menu right now. Be the first to ask a question about Landscape for a Good Woman. 1: An Introduction, The Dignity of Working Men: Morality and the Boundaries of Race, Class, and Immigration. It bridges biography/autobiography/academic writing. . Maybe others remember things differently. 'Landscape for a Good Woman' marks a turning point in how history is written. This is an insightful, well written book which embraces, history, politics and the personal, it's honesty reveals the complications of the human situation. Reviewed in the United States on April 11, 2004. I just loved this allusive, definite and very reflexive work on the making of women, class & desire. In the start of the book, Steedman acknowledges that she is not writing a history for everyone (she even denies that her book is a work of history). Please try again. ", Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 12, 2016, Truly great study of what social glass really means in the UK - feminism dissing 19th century models, Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 14, 2017, Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 28, 2016.
There's a problem loading this menu right now. Partly autobiographical, taking a mother and her daughter; two working-class childhoods (Burnley in the 1920s, South London in the 1950s) and trying to find a place for their stories in history and politics, in psychoanalysis and feminism. It isn't really a memoir, or a traditional work of history, and I can't remember ever reading a book quite like it. Her anger extended to her two daughters--she told them, "If it wasn't for you two, I'd be off somewhere else. She is a Professor in the Department of History at the University of Warwick. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon.

Carolyn Steedman is the author of An Everyday Life of the English Working Class (2013). Start by marking “Landscape for a Good Woman: A Story of Two Lives” as Want to Read: Error rating book. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations, Select the department you want to search in, + $9.93 Shipping & Import Fees Deposit to Hungary. She was, in Steedman's words, part of a "subterranean culture of longing for what one can never have." Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2007, As I was comprising a reading list for my graduate students, I was suddenly reminded of Steedman's slim historical-novella-theory book that towers over so many other creative and academic achievements. There's a reason it's still being published. For a woman of my age - roughly that of the author - it provides insight to some world changing events. ", Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2015.

Beyond categorization, Steedman's work is absolutely essential reading. It made me realize how little I've thought both of my own parents' positions while raising me and the "accuracy" of my memories of that time. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. In this history/biography, Steedman qualifies the use of the Freudian psychoanalytic case study to look at her working-class South London childhood.

In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading. I had to read it for uni but a lot of what she says you can really relate to and steedman raises some interesting points about motherhood and the reality vs visions. It contains all of the things that I like: post-war decline of Britain, working-class narratives, adolescence, female subjectivities. After viewing product detail pages, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. There's a reason it's still being published. Landscape for a Good Woman book. This is often triggered by the realisation that the father has no influence outside the house. I know this and you don't. Unique and undefinable, I loved this more than I can say -- probably one of the things more full of personal meaning to me as well as of theoretical import that I have read in a while. Buy Landscape for a Good Woman: A Story of Two Women by Steedman, Carolyn (ISBN: 9780860685593) from Amazon's Book Store. I honestly don't know what to say about this book...it is still puzzling me. There are lives, real lives, and there are the theories that explain them. It also analyzes reviews to verify trustworthiness. It sort of feels all over the place, but every part of it reads towards her argument and it's really compelling in the ways she mines her own experience for these pieces. There was a problem loading your book clubs.