WS BOOK CLUB SUMMER 2002 THEME:
WOMEN WRITING ABOUT WAR

"The war she endured was different."
(H.D., from Helen in Egypt)

Women are strongly connected to war in all contexts: as women warriors in ancient times, as disguised male soldiers in the U.S. Civil War, as Air Force pilots in WW II, as frontline journalists and photographers, as spies, as peacemakers, as survivors and victims of wars' destruction, and as chroniclers of their experience of war. In recent times, parallel with the emergence of women in the modern military, unpublished and out-of-print books have reemerged, as has a new genre of historical, sociological and political texts that document and analyze women's past and current experiences of war. (Our own Judith Stiehm has written several well-regarded books, including Its Our Military, Too! and Arms and the Enlisted Woman). Literally hundreds of books, films, paintings, photographs and sculptures by women record women's war history. Listed below is a selection of diverse books by four authors as an introduction to our theme:

Three Guineas by Virginia Woolf
In this classic essay, Woolf blends several concerns: women's economic and professional status and the absence of liberty and peace into a seamless claim that they stem from the same patriarchal inhumanity that subjugates women and fosters war.

Not So Quiet by Helen Zenna Smith
Smith served in the WW I British Ambulance Corps at the French frontline. In this excellent novel she records her outrage of complacent patriotism, the senselessness of war and the difficult tribulations suffered by the women comrades who served with her. (Another choice from this era is Vera Brittain's Testament of Youth, but be forewarned, it is 600 plus pages).

The Face of War by Martha Gellhorn
Called a "great chronicler of the 20th Century," Gellhorn wrote several books of war reportage about her experience in the Spanish Civil War, Central America, and Vietnam. One reviewer noted " [this is] a brilliant anti-war book...her pieces fall into place in a grand design." (NYT) (A similar book of her war journalism is The View From the Ground that is organized by decade sections from the1930s to the 80s and includes Cuba).

The Mortal Storm by Phyllis Bottome
Bottome's anti-fascist novel, recently reprinted, an important book in its time, is recalled as the document that "warned the West about the Nazi menace." The feminist protagonist, a medical student, forges a courageous struggle to escape the Nazism in her family and Munich circle. The filmed version (starring James Stewart and Margaret Sullivan) is still studied for its reception history of censorship, particularly as one of seven films included in the senate hearing that investigated prominent Hollywood figures accused of leading the U. S. into WW II. (Introduction by M. Hoder-Salmon and Phyllis Lassner)

The Trap by Ana Maria Matute
In her powerful novel, The Trap, Ana Maria Matute explores the ties that bind family, society and culture. Through her compelling use of a powerful feminine first-person narrative, Matute highlights the experience of women during the tumultuous years of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Matute delicately weaves a feminist subtext into the larger context of Spain's difficulties in dealing with gender, class and cultural distinctions. She draws from her own experiences to paint a literary picture of the conflict between two groups: the
people she calls the merchants (who deny the vitality of life) and the soldiers (who believe in tolerance). The Trap examines the lasting effects of social upheaval, discrimination and lives trapped in conflict. Matute is a novelist well deserving of her literary acclaim and is ably translated in her latest work by Robert Nugent and Maria Jose de la Camara, bringing the vitality and power of Matute's fiction to an English speaking readership.