Stories of Strong and Independent Women who Persevere Despite Societal, Political or Familial Obstacles

By Caroline Scheil 

I have really enjoyed the opportunity to read a variety of texts that showcase the power of women. I got to witness this in our first text Home Fire, Antigone and There There. In high school I never really felt like there was a strong enough representation of leading women in our reading . Though there was the occasional short story, poem or excerpt, the novels we read mostly centered around a white young man’s coming of age or their desire for power. Though a lot of the stories we read are classics like Great Expectations, Frankenstein and Hamlet it was always more difficult for me to relate to. Which is why whenever I can I try to read books written by women and or people of color. I chose Antigone as my home text because of this. Antigone is a play that I’m familiar with because of high school theatre and though the character Antigone frustrates me at times, her fortitude is something that really inspires me. 

 

This class also taught me to look outside the box of Western literature. I never realized how my view can be incredibly tunnel-visioned because it’s just where I’m centered to look. This is also a point I wanted to make with this project. I wanted to expand my view and continue to discover stories in the Middle East, Asia and Africa especially since my home text stems from Ancient Greece. In regards to whether or not I wanted to include a story from America, I decided to include Sab from Cuba. So after this little introduction into my thought process regarding this project without further ado I present to you a discovery of...

 

Literary Texts that tell the stories of strong and independent women who persevere to get what they want despite any obstacles that stand in their way whether that be society, politics or family. As another little layer I also included the relationship status of these characters. Whether they are in a relationship or not I don’t think their romantic relationships affected their independence in any way. 

 

To navigate this Neatline I recommend moving chronologically through time. This means starting off in Ancient Greece with the home text, Antigone, and then taking a trip on the Silk Roads to the Northern Wei Dynasty to learn the non-Disnified Poem of Mulan. If you have time on your journey, jump forward to the Tang Dynasty to hear the Song of Mulan for a side excursion to compare these two versions of the warrior Mulan’s famous story. Moving on we’re gonna take a long boat ride to 19th century Cuba to read Gertrudis Gomez de Avellaneda’s story Sab. We’ll journey back to the Eastern Hemisphere for Tambu’s educational journey in Nervous Conditions and take one final trek to the Middle East where we’re going to look into a real 21st century woman’s story of perseverance with I am Malala. 

I hope you enjoy this Neatline experience!