ESSAY
Do male pseudonyms represent rep female w ‘Currer Bell, George Eliot, George Sand, all the victims of inner strife as their writings prove, sought ineffectively to veil themselves by using the name of a man’.
Do male pseudonyms represent repression or liberation when used by female writers? Over the years, women have chosen to mask their identity by using a male pseudonym but whether this represents repression in their society or liberation by their ability to bypass the normalities should first be addressed by understanding some definitions. Repression is the action of repressing, with repress being defined as to “check, keep down or restrain (something bad or objectionable)” and liberation, by contrast, is “setting someone free from bondage or oppression”. Thus, to measure and evaluate how women writing under a male name represent and fulfil the previous definitions an exploration between the individual liberties and place in society is necessary.
“Literature cannot be the business of a woman’s life, and it ought not to be” Historically, women’s inferiority was reflected in society by their lack of liberties such as their inability to vote until 1918. The nature of this societal inequality significantly prevented women’s work to be published on the same grounds as men. Yet through using a male pseudonym women’s literary work was able to be published more readily with the literature itself being viewed rather than through the lens of gender discrimination. Expanding on
this point, the renowned Charlotte Brontë initially sent a bundle of poems to Robert Southey, who was the poet laureate, but when he replied, deliberately stated that “Literature cannot be the business of a woman’s life, and it ought not to be”, which shows repressive nature of literary giants towards women of the time. Yet this did not stop her publishing her novel Jane Eyre under the pseudonym Currer Bell and various poems by herself and her sisters also using male names. The Brontë sisters were now able to place their work among their male peers, defying the oppressive patriarchal society they were living in ultimately fulfilling the definition of liberation. One contemporary writing in the Era newspaper went so far as to say that Currer holds “the gift of being able to write as he thinks and feels” showing that her work was being viewed and criticised for the content only, not the fact she was a woman, clearly showing that the Brontë sisters experienced the freedom to write by using a male mask. Prior to the 1882 Married Women’s Property Act, any earnings that a woman made became their husband’s property, so even if women were able to publish their work, their facades would not bypass this law so the luxury and benefits of a successful literary career cannot be fulfilled. Thus, by veiling their name in a man’s identity, they are accepting that the patriarchal society makes women unequal by being afraid to submit work with their real names. Furthermore, by being able to name members such as George Sands, George Eliot, Acton, Ellis and Currer Bell, the number of female writers using a male pseudonym is certainly within the minority, which in turn highlights the repression against the rest of women during this period. These women all previously mentioned were literate and had access to education but the illiteracy rate in women in England, by 1840, was 50% therefore these women were not an accurate representation of
