Does the work produced by female authors consistently differ from the work produced by males in a significant way?And,
In what ways would you, personally, be able to identify a text as written by a female or male?
And also,
In your experience, do female authors write female character more sympathetically than male characters, and vice versa for male authors?
Twitter: @JCGlendenning
The reason I ask, my fellow fictioners*, is that it would tie into my language investigation nicely. Like a glove, some might say. You'd be doing me a huge favour if you took the time to even reply quickly!
I would be even more ecstatically interested if anyone would answer with fantasy specifically in mind, because as a genre is has a stereotype of female authors - yet a vast majority of everything I read in fantasy is by male authors. I don't take the gender of the writer into consideration when reading... until I remember their name as good or bad. I have a good mix of gender in my favourite authors, mind.
Robin Hobb,
Naomi Novik
Tolkien,
Jim Butcher,
Trudi Canavan,
Diana Wynne Jones (more so in the past than now)
Garth Nix...
And looking at this list... I see that female authors of fantasy are more numerous than I remembered. Either way, I still need to know other opinions on the matter!
Gender in writers doesn't bother me, unless something occurs which brings their gender into light... like spouting crap and throwing in our faces when really, all we're trying to do is escape this blessed place for a few hours.
Reply either on here, or through Twitter @JCGlendenning
Thanks!
*fictioners: collective noun for readers and writers of fiction.
I've read a mixture of different gendered authors and can't honestly say that author gender has ever made itself obvious to me, and I don't feel that there is a bias of sympathy either way. It might just be that I've never questioned it but I can't think of any examples of it. Thought provoking questions!
ReplyDeleteI usually find the gender of the author rather obvious in the writing but that might be due to the genre (mostly mordern day fiction - chick lit). For example I was convinced Dan Brown was gay as he only writes about one female character (different name/job) and puts in the same sex scene into each novel just to satisfy the publishers. Tolkien (I do read other stuff occasionally) doesn't seem interested in women either. Most women writers tell the story from the women's point of view and the men are either a problem or something to be caught.I know they say write about what you know so you can usually tell the gender of the author from the perspective that is missing from the story.
ReplyDelete@Janet, now that's the problem that I thought might appear, but from the articles I've found on various places author gender is a serious issue for many, many people - I'd love to see why! Thanks for your reply, cousin!
ReplyDelete@Anon, thank you for your reply, it's an interesting way of perceiving it - the perspective missing from the story. Personally, I don't like Dan Brown's work anyway, and I could point you in the direction of some articles which point out his formulaic approach to novel writing. I think you might be off the mark slightly with Tolkien, because if you think of Arwen and Eowyn in particular, they go against the norm in their cultures to pursue something they want themselves. Both times against their fathers. Again, thank you for your input!
Please ask anyone else you know to participate too, as the more people, the merrier I'll be!
I think female writters tend to be more empathic than males and men tend to be more on the visual, setting the scenes etc. Laugh all you like but Enid Blyton and Dickens, pratchet are a few of my personal favs, however, MASSIVE fan of William Gibson
ReplyDelete