SAPPHO
The first in the worthy female writing history was Sappho, an Archaic Greek poet and a musician believed to have been born in 620 BCE on the Greek Island of Lesbos. She's best known for the invention and development of lyric poetry,also appreciated for the invention of " Plektron" , "Pektis" and "Mixolydian mode". She also invented her own poetry meter known as Sapphic meter.
Her piece " Ode to Aphrodite" has earned various illustrations and appreciation, despite its difficult dialect . Widely recognised as one of the finest and greatest lyric poets and was referred to as " the Poetess" or " Tenth Muse". She was also included by scholars in the Nine Illustrious lyric poets, a list of prominent poets of her age. Out of the Nine Volumes she composed , there's only one that survives , the rest are found as fragments.
She was also regarded as a" Lesbian poet", writers draw this perception from her works, since most of her fragmentary works emphasize on female homosexuality, however, there's no proof or evidence which certain her sexuality. Despite various suspicions or allegations, she was famous enough to have her statues erected and her face minted over coins and her impeccably emotive fragments endured appreciation even after 2000 years. She's believed to have died in 570 BCE, however, the cause of her death is unknown.
MURASAKI SHIKIBU
Murasaki Shikibu was a Japanese novelist/writer, born in 970 in an aristocratic family, just as one can guess, the women in her society were protected from public view , despite of the intrinsic restrictions imposed, she excelled in education and became conversant in Japanese and Chinese Literature. She's the author of " The Tale of Genji" ( Genji Monogatari), one of the most modern novels and greatest masterpieces of that time. It was written about the complex details in the life of an Imperial Prince, especially mentioning the love interests of Prince Genji and about the women in her life. She began authoring the novel as a widow when her husband died after two years of being married in the early eleventh century. In her novel she also mentioned the physiological insights of women characters. " THE TALE OF GENJI'' has multifaceted characters and intricate details of events, people and their not so common skills. It is widely believed that '' ( Genji Monogatari) " was the first novel ever written, that too being romance-themed, a great piece on its own written by a woman, a courtier.
She also positioned herself at court and used to teach " Empress Soshi" , she also taught her Chinese, which was only learned by men in their society till then. She died around 1014, the reasons of her death are not known.
CHRISTINE DE PIZAN
Christine De Pizan( 1364-c. 1430),an Italian poet, a critic, also a rhetorician. She authored the "Book of the city of Ladies", " The treasure of the city of Ladies" and so many more.She was born in Venice ( Italy) and her father was an astrologer in French court of King Charles V. She lived at court as a girl and so she had exposure to literature.She had immense respect for Italian Heritage, but she also worked in France as a court writer. She is widely considered as the first professional female writer and the first feminist since she in her writings advocated a better improved sense of equality and acceptance for women. She was married when she was 15 years old and her husband was keenly supportive of her writings and had three children,after her husband died she struggled financially and she was denied her husband's money because she was a woman. But later she made a good living through her rich intricate feminist writings which were not only accepted in the medieval era but were also later printed in different languages. In her book "City of Ladies" she writes about the regressive mindsets of men around and how women were treated as second class citizens taking references from the Bible. It's a great piece to understand how women identified themselves in the middle ages.
She didn't only write a book, but her works include poems about war and widowhood , poems in defence of women which were highly appreciated.
GULBADAN BANU
Gulbadan Banu was the daughter of Emperor Babur. She was born in 1523 in Afghanistan. She was the author of "Humayun Nama" which she wrote after the request of her nephew Akbar. Humayun Nama was a memoir about Babur and Humayun's reign. Gulbadan Banu mentions about the family feuds amongst her brothers with great grief , accelerating with the pace she mentions everything she witnessed and had memory of as it is. There are glimpses of different shades and mindsets of women and also she mentioned about what kind of challenges and pressures women had to face in the royal family. However there's a considerable difference between how she describes "Harem" and how her other contemporary male writers describe it. As she was "as it is" with her writing, she mentions the complex hierarchies and Patriarchy involved there which was different from how the male historians glorified mentioning glimpse of feminism and organised relationships. She also writes about "Hamida" and her attitude of opposing to marry Humayun,a woman who understood herself and didn't want to be associated with the royal family and marry a man much older than her.
EXCEPTIONAL WOMEN FROM EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURY
ANN RADCLIFFE
Named after her mother Ann ward which was so uncommon at that time. Born in 1764 in Holborn( England) she was cherished and her works were actively admired till the end of the nineteenth century. It is widely believed that it's because of her that Gothic or "Terror" fiction attained a state of prominence in the 1790s. Her most famous works include "The Mysteries of Udolpho" in which she included self-written pieces of poetry. This was her fourth work and the most fascinating. Her husband was supportive of her reading and writing.
GABRIELA MISTRAL
Her real name was Lucila Godoy Alcayaga , born in 1889 Vicuna, Chile. She worked for the "poorest of the poor" women, children and those affected by war. Lucila Godoy was the first Latin American to have won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1945. She was an educator and moved to different regions delivering lectures and also contributed in establishing an education system in Mexico. She wasn't confined to writing poems about emotions in her life only but wrote about the miseries of people she came across. Her father had an influence on her creative yet revolutionary career and would sing her poems. Her grandmother was a religious lady and taught her religious teachings. She's known as Gabriela Mistral because of the piece she signed called "Sonnets of Death" , which won a Chilean prize.She used the name of her two favourite poets Gabriele D'annunzio and Frederic Mistral. She wrote about her culture, how women were stopped from having access to education , about the challenges she faced when she moved from her village to Vicuna, the sorrow of being separated from family and how she was denied admission to school because of how she writes. One of her famous works is "Desolacion" , in which she wrote poems relating to the tragedy she faced when her first lover died by suicide. She also wrote about the plight and miseries of Native Indian population in her region in her piece called " POEMAS DE LA MADRE MÁS TRISTE". She devoted her life as a teacher , writer and humanitarian who worked for the interests of marginalized people. She died in 1957 due to pancreatic cancer in New York.
WHAT CAN BE LEARNED THROUGH THEIR ACCOUNTS.
Despite the vast cultural differences and differences in economic levels, all of these impeccable women had a sense of identity,a sense of individuality. The modern terms we are accumulating and imbibing in the present times can be traced back to their works, where they wrote freely about the journey inside the minds of women. Most of them had access to education as they belonged to aristocratic and noble families,they excelled in education as well as languages and writing, which brings out the importance of education in empowering the state of mind of women and making them more confident about themselves. Writers like Gulbadan Banu who gave contrasting accounts about "Harem" were straight yet simple with their writings. And so following the reason,her work was sidelined by Mughal historians while collecting the broader view of the system.
Writers like Sappho and Murasaki Shikibu, though belonging to different centuries, were bold enough to write about romance and peculiar details of the feelings which they brought through their works. Feminism can be traced back from the writings of Christine De Pizan , who wrote about the challenges women faced and the need to give thoughtful trajectory towards their development. These writers had a sense of freedom, individuality and confidence which women in our times are gradually imbibing and their journey indicates the crucial significance of Education. It's surprising that there were instances where daughters could bore the name of their mothers like Ann Radcliffe did. These women have not only worked towards sketching women's grief and miseries at that time but they also contributed in writing about the other marginalized sections including children and how culture exploited their upbringing. Gabriela Mistral had first-hand knowledge about how not having access to education was an obstacle not only for women but for society as well. It's important to go back and learn about the values we have forgotten from these women, who still are the epitome of grace and individuality, to visit through the minds of not only writers but those written in the books as well to understand the woman of the present which is essential towards having a better understanding of the heart and soul of their desires and aspirations.
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